


Malfunctioning Instincts

by missiefish



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, No shipping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:00:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24430984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missiefish/pseuds/missiefish
Summary: A mishap at area 77 causes Doc and Scar to become lost in one of the far corners of the world with no equipment or way to contact the other hermits. On top of that Doc's cybernetics are malfunctioning, how will he manage without his enhancements?
Comments: 164
Kudos: 240





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My first fic ever! Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Doc sat at his workbench, analyzing a damaged enchanted trident he had gotten off of a particularly pesky drowned, it was crackling with channeling energy.

The gears in the cyborg’s head spun, literally, as he stared at the trident. 

_I wonder if I could use a chip of this to fletch an arrow_.

Doc slowly tapped the side of his mechanical eye, the repetitive noise helping him think.

 _Okay what would be the best instrument for breaking this thing? The_ cyborg searched through his inventory and pulled out all of his tools, placing them on the table next to the quietly crackling trident.

 _Sword, trident, pickaxe, axe, shovel… why do I have a hoe on me?_ He put the hoe back in his inventory as well as the trident and shovel, none of those seemed appropriate for this job.

Doc decided the pick was probably the best tool so he carefully moved the trident to the middle of the table and pressed the point of his pick directly in the centre of the bar that held the three prongs in place.

He pulled the pick back and held it in the air for a second before bringing it down with all his might

**_CLANG_ **

Both the pick and the trident shattered, pieces flying all over the room.

The noise rang through Doc’s abnormally sensitive ears and he gritted his teeth, the sound felt as though it had traveled through his very bones.

The cyborg shivered and waited a few minutes for the ringing in his ears to settle down.

“That was my best pickaxe..” he muttered aloud mournfully before picking up one of the enchanted shards with a pair of tweezers.

It was difficult to attach the shards to the arrow tip without getting shocked but eventually Doc managed it.

He fetched a crossbow that happened to be in a nearby chest, he would have prefered to use a regular bow but with how difficult it had been to avoid getting shocked already he didn’t want to give it any more chances. Loading it into the crossbow was much safer. 

Carefully he nocked the arrow and gently pulled it back, the string clicked into place, causing the crossbow to shudder in his hands slightly and the charged tip to knock his arm, it made a small **_zap_ **noise.

“crap-” the cyborg exclaimed as he winced at the pain, yanking his arm back. 

With a small huff he rolled his eyes at the weapon as if it was intentionally being difficult. He’d had enough of this experiment for now so he put the loaded crossbow back on the workbench and turned to his main project.

The new prototype in the CB series, CB-137 was going excellently. Doc felt he was getting so close to cracking the code and being able to pull the full potential out of the device, maybe even getting there through this model, no need to make any more prototypes! Just improve on this one!

The cyborg looked up at the machine, it was three times the size of him, a massive grey cube with a different shaped panel on each side. A few multicoloured flashing lights littered each panel

_First thing I improve on once I work out the kinks of this thing is making it less frickin huge_

Doc chuckled to himself as he took a seat at the control panel connected to the massive machine and started typing and organising the code that would help the device tick.

The cyborg yawned. 

_What time is it?_ He pulled himself away from his work, he’d been pulling all nighters far too often lately and honestly, his work was suffering for it. So he stretched and with the power of better judgement, strolled outside.

The moon was high in the night sky, it was pleasantly cool and there was a fresh breeze. Doc licked his lips and deeply inhaled, the quiet sound and smell of night was so peaceful it was invigorating, maybe he would walk home tonight instead of flying. 

Doc heard a skeleton rattling nearby and grinned, showing a row of jagged teeth. He pulled out his trident as he heard another rattle, the sound only invigorated him more as he held his weapon above his head, preparing to strike.

______

  
  


Scar was doing his daily early morning stroll around the area 77 perimeter, carefully checking for any creeper holes or other damage to the large fence that surrounded the area, they couldn’t just have any old joe (hills) walking in could they! Even though anyone could easily fit between the fence bars, it was the intention that counted.

The landscaper grinned as, in the same place as always, he spotted a distinct red jumper.

“Sir, this is private property” Scar called out as he jogged towards the jumper wearing hippie, Grian was sitting just outside the area 77 fence.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” the blond said in mock offence “this is public land”

Scar cleared his throat and narrowed his eyes, trying to look serious “you’re treading a thin line my good sir. As you do everyday” Scar let the act drop and snorted as Grian also chuckled along.

As they recovered the prankster sat up with his chin on his hands. “So how did you get the scars, Scar?” he asked mischievously.

 _Everyday like clockwork. It was this routine again,_ it had become a kind of tradition between the two of them, each day when Scar would do his check of the perimeter Grian would wait in the same spot, ask Scar about all the old injuries he had and the landscaper would come up with a new strange reason for them. His favourite so far was ‘crossed paths with the wrong dolphin’

“Malfunctioning milkshake maker” Scar said matter of factly.

“Ah yes of course” Grian nodded sagely.

“By the way, our secret weapon is almost finished!” the builder said, suddenly changing the subject as he enthusiastically gestured to the massive clock ticking down over the hippie camp.

Scar raised an eyebrow “the massive pit?”

“Oh it’s much more than that!” Grian grinned cheekily before jumping to his feet “it’s gonna knock your socks off!” he called out while marching back to the camp.

“I don’t wear socks!” Scar called after him. 

The landscaper chuckled before going back to finishing his perimeter check.

He hummed to himself a familiar tune that he often hummed while building, when he was interrupted by a small meow.

“Jellie!” Scar crouched down to pet his beloved cat. “I didn’t see you coming! Are you here to help me finish the check?” 

Jellie purred and marched ahead, leading the way. Scar followed, telling Jellie about various things that had been going on, “-And as usual Grian was waiting in the same spot-” “-I’m not sure if Doc has even left area 77 for the past week-” “-and then I went sailing right into the side of the building, yeah I know I need to check my elytra more often-”

“Oh we’re done already” The landscaper said with surprise, Jellie purred and weaved in and out of Scar’s legs. He picked up the soft creature and held her to his chest, running his hand through her fur “I suppose we should go see what Doc was working on last night then?”

Scar headed over to the hanger that he and Doc were currently working in. 

Doc’s workbench was a mess, there were glowing blue shards all over the place and a loaded crossbow in the centre. “Gosh at least I keep my mess in shulker boxes huh Jellie?” The cat jumped out of his arms and onto the bench, sniffing at one of the shards.

Scar turned to the huge cuboid machine they were working on, he didn’t really understand anything about it but Doc said it would change everything, for the better of course. The landscaper stepped closer to the device, studying the flashing lights on each of the panels. He was just about to reach out and touch it before Jellie let out a horrible, loud hiss.

**_TWANG-CRASH_ **

Jellie scampered out the room as the crossbow fired, the arrow lodging directly into the machine. Scar panicked and ripped the arrow out but it was too late, there was smoke pouring out of the entrance wound.

_____

  
  


Doc was working on one of his secret projects when his communicator buzzed, shaking him out of his concentration and startling him slightly. He pulled the communicator out of his pocket and clicked through it, absentmindedly licking his lips. It was a private message.

**< GoodTimeWithScar>** Doc I need you

**< GoodTimeWithScar> **Something went wrong with the CB-137 its smoking

**< GoodTimeWithScar> **It smells horrible

**< Docm77> **Be careful, will be there ASAP

Doc hastily offloaded his stuff into a random shulker, equipped his elytra and took off for area 77, spamming rockets to get there as fast as he could. He flew directly into the hanger and skidded to a halt almost tumbling right into Scar.

The cyborg stared up at the rapidly beeping and smoking device “How the hell did it get like this man”

“I- I’ll explain later, just- how do we fix it??” Scar could barely get the words out through his panic.

Doc took a deep breath, he had to keep his calm, freaking out about this wouldn’t fix anything… that was something to do after he stopped this thing from exploding.

Doc tapped the side of his inorganic eye, thinking. He scanned the prototype and analyzed the generated charts that he could now see through his cybernetic eye.

 _Okay so the CB-137 has been damaged, well that was clear already,_ Doc moved to the side of the machine for another perspective on the damage. _Ah something producing a large amount of power had been forcefully inserted right next to the main circuit control area.. Okay we need to both manually and digitally shut down each area._

Doc bit his tongue, _I think I can construct a string to do that, Scar will have to help._

The cyborg jogged to the control panel, gesturing for Scar to follow who after a moment of hesitation, looking up at the smoking device, did so.

“Okay I need you to type in what I say” Doc said calmly, doing well to hide the uncertainty in his voice, and moved aside so Scar had access to the monitor.

___

  
  


_Great, typing under pressure. My forte_ Scar thought to himself, his eyes darting between the keys. 

He pinched the bridge of his nose and waited for Doc to give him further instructions. In the meantime the cyborg had ripped off a panel from the machine, exposing a bunch of colourful wires.

“Okay Scar, type in-” Doc listed off a string of letters and numbers that the landscaper followed to the best of his abilities, which when it came to writing wasn’t much. 

“You got all that in?” Doc asked and Scar nodded shakily “okay on the count of three I need you to hit enter.”

“3”

Scar looked down at the incomprehensible string of characters, _what would happen if he had got it wrong?_

“2”

The air was becoming thick with static electricity, making Scars hair stand on end.

“1”

Scar hit the enter key which gave him a small electric shock and for a second, it seemed to have worked.

Then it didn’t


	2. Chapter 2

Grian smirked as he skipped back to the hippie camp, he loved the daily routine that he’d found Scar and himself in, who could have known that all those injuries were caused by a malfunctioning milkshake maker, or exactly twelve bees, or from simply staring at the sun for too long.

The builder chuckled at the many reasons the landscaper had given as he stepped into the clearing that held the camp.

“Hey G!” Grian’s fellow crimson clad hippie called out.

Ren was covered in dirt, in the middle of digging up a section of the mushroom garden.

The prankster waved and sat down by the firepit, he didn’t feel like getting into any big projects today. Maybe a small amount of tidying up, but mostly relaxing, today was going to be a relaxed day.

Grian’s communicator buzzed and he opened his eyes, had he fallen asleep? The builder yawned and rubbed his face before pulling out his communicator, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the light emanating from the device.

  
  


**< GoodTimeWithScar was electrocuted>**

**< Docm77 was electrocuted>**

  
  


“Electrocuted?” Grian wondered aloud.

“Oh Grian you’re awake!” Ren smiled before seeing the builder’s confused expression and pulling out his own communicator. “Electrocuted? Like struck by lightning?”

“It’s not raining though..” Grian pointed out.

  
  


**< Grian> **What happened?

**< iskall85> **Of course those two managed to get a new death message

**< iskall85> **lol!

  
  


“Something about this doesn’t seem right” Ren said, voicing Grian’s thoughts aloud and the builder nodded in response.

  
  


**< Renthedog> **Hey dudes we’re a little worried

**< Renthedog> **Can you let us know you’re alright?

  
  


The two of them waited for a response but none came.

  
  


**< cubfan135>** If they don’t respond soon I’ll send the drones over

  
  


_______

  
  


Scar groaned, his entire body had pins and needles, particularly his left arm which he rubbed to try to get some feeling back into it. 

He looked up, taking in his surroundings and to his surprise he realised he wasn’t in a bed, nor was he at spawn island, he was instead laying on slightly damp grass in the middle of an uninhabited spruce forest.

“What in the world” he muttered to himself and pulled out his communicator, the screen had an overlay of static which Scar found mildly concerning, in fact, the whole communicator seemed to be bugging out. It was lagging almost unbearably, buttons were unresponsive and sometimes would even lead him to the completely wrong place, not to mention all the visual glitches. Eventually through trial and error, he managed to type a message out and send it.

**< GoodTimeWithScar>** X I spawned in a weird place

**< message was unable to send>**

_Well that didn’t seem good_

The landscaper took off his hat and ran his hand through his hair, maybe he could just die and respawn again?

Before Scar could properly start contemplating what he should do next a quiet hissing sent shivers up his spine and he instinctively scrambled to his feet, trying to locate the source of the sound. 

Doc lay a few blocks away hissing and twitching on the ground, weakly clawing at the metal on his face.

“Doc?!” Scar bolted over “Doc what’s wrong?” The claws on Doc’s feet were creating deep grooves in the ground as his whole body spasmed.

“M-malfunctioning- pull out the power sssource” Doc managed to force out through the apparently involuntary hissing

“Okay, okay another high pressure situation, the last one went amazing” Scar muttered frantically to himself as he almost pulled a chunk of hair out of his head.

Scar bent over the cyborg and flicked the clip that Doc was previously clawing at, causing the facial covering to spring open, the metal was uncomfortably warm. 

Inside was a mess of blue and green wires as well as a bunch of tubes with a red substance flowing through them, the tubes seemed to become more concentrated around a large white cylinder placed directly where his eye socket should be, smoke was beginning to seep out of the socket.

Doc lifted his twitching hand and grasped the large cylinder before his arm spasmed, swinging out wildly and hitting Scar in the face, causing him to tumble backwards. The landscaper felt something warm trickle down his cheek.

“Ssshit sssorry man” The cyborg hissed out, squinting briefly at Scar before pressing his eye shut once again.

Scar shook his head and lent forward once again, he grasped the cylinder, trying to mimic what he had seen Doc attempting a few seconds prior. It was hot, very hot, much hotter and Scar feared he wouldn’t be able to touch it at all, with that in the back of his mind the landscaper turned the cylinder and with a slightly unnerving **_KA-CHUNK_ **it came loose. 

There was a clinking sound like LED lights turning off as the red glowing parts of Doc’s arm and eye flickered and deactivated, the cyborg stopped convulsing and let out the breath he had been holding, his face however was still screwed up in pain. Slowly Doc’s face untensed a bit before becoming completely still.

Scar sat there trying to process all that had happened over the last 5 minutes, he absentmindedly scratched his cheek which sent a small shock of pain shooting through him _oh yeah, the scratch_ he pulled away his now slightly bloody hand and sighed. What had they managed to get themselves into this time…

_____

  
  


Cub tapped impatiently on the side of his keyboard, sure Scar died a lot in weird ways but electrocution?

It was possible that the two of them just hadn’t looked at their communicators yet so Cub didn’t want to get worked up over nothing. It would be best to wait a bit.

The scientist let the seconds ever so slowly stretch into minutes, he kept looking down at the time displayed on his communicator impatiently.

One minute passed.

Two minutes.

Five.

Ten.

Twenty minutes had passed and still no messages from Scar or Doc.

  
  


**< cubfan135> **Okay I’m sending the drones out looking for them.

**< Grian> **Good luck!

**< Renthedog> **Yeah good luck dude!

**< Renthedog>** Let us know if you need anything

  
  


Cub booted up the remote access drone tool and monitors all over the room flickered to life, each showing a different view of various builds and important areas dotted around the server. He looked through each of the screens for the one closest to area 77, it was a tie between drone B2 and D4. 

The scientist shrugged and manually took over drone D4, flying it over the perimeter and like he had done many times before, completely disregarding the tall imposing fence. 

Once in the centre the drone slowly turned a full circle, giving a 360 degree view of the area, revealing, nothing. Everything looked in order, well as in order as area 77 could be.

With no obvious place to look Cub sent the drone into a random, half open hanger. He knew that Doc wouldn’t be pleased with him snooping around but the scientist wasn’t going to just sit there while Scar, _his best friend_ , went missing.

The inside of the hanger was mostly empty aside from the massive.. Vehicle? It was a sphere with a large dish being held on each side in place of wings.

The scientist moved the drone to get a closer look, but as he did so there was a flash of movement in the corner of the screen. 

Cub rapidly swiveled the drone around. Sitting in the middle of the entryway, was Jellie, daintily licking her paw.

The cat looked up at the drone, the scientist felt as if she was staring through the screen and directly into his soul. She turned away from the camera and walked out the hanger.

Cub went back to inspecting the area, there was a window in the centre of the vehicle.

He was again interrupted by the microphone picking up a loud **_YeOoOwL._ **

Jellie was back at the door, impatiently padding back and forth before darting away again once she had been noticed.

Cub couldn’t help but feel she was asking him to follow her so he turned the drone around and did exactly that.

With purpose the cat led him two hangers over.

The camera ducked though the opening and before it could properly adjust to the light level change something strange started happening, the connection with the drone seemingly got weaker and weaker, the visual feed becoming fuzzy and glitchy. Cub made the drone hang back, trying to keep connection with it. 

Through the crackly visuals he managed to make out a large grey box, about six blocks tall. There appeared to be something ripped off the front of it and the scientist edged the drone closer, trying to get a better look.

Cub just about managed to make out a ton of exposed wires that were smoking gently before the feed cut to black shortly followed by a loud **_CLANG_ ** of the drone presumably hitting the floor.

_____

  
  


Doc had a high fever, it had been about half an hour since they respawned and Scar had dug out a patch of dirt to gain access to the cool stone beneath. He laid the still form of Doc on the stone, trying to lower his body temperature. Scar had considered leaving Doc to search for some snow but he didn’t feel it was safe just leaving him laying there, dead to the world. So Scar instead busied himself punching some nearby trees to make some tools.

The landscaper decided the best next course of action would be to focus on creating a shelter, he _could_ just make a spruce box and call it a day but if Scar was going to build a house he would do it right, or at least to the best of his abilities in the current situation.

So he set to work, with dirt scaffolding he planned out an L shaped, single roomed cottage with a pointed roof, centered around Doc’s still form. The landscaper couldn’t really move Doc much himself so he decided it would be easier to just build the shelter around him.

Scar quietly hummed while he worked, this was just the break he needed to calm his nerves, no explosions, no loud noises, just the landscaper and his thoughts gently placing down blocks.

_What had happened to Doc? Not to mention his communicator, they must be related to the messed up spawn and all of it was probably connected to just how they had died, if he died again would he respawn at home? Would he respawn at all…? It was safer not to risk it, plus that would mean he would have to kill Doc and if they did respawn it might not even be in the same place, definitely better to not risk it._

As he worked away the landscaper gave a worried glance to the now broken cyborg, his eye was no longer pressed shut as tightly as it was previously and Scar hoped that meant he was feeling a bit better, he even looked peaceful in the moment.

 _Sure he looked peaceful but what if he didn’t get up… Or if he did would anything be different?_ Scar had no idea how much of Doc was actually robotic, aside from the obvious bits it was a mystery to him.

The landscaper gingerly stepped over the wall he was in the middle of building and felt the cybrog’s forehead.

The texture of Doc’s skin was comparable to canvas interspersed with rough loose scales, Scar knew he shouldn’t but he couldn’t help but feel it was a little unnerving. 

Regardless, to Scar’s relief the cyborg’s temperature was now about the same as the landscaper’s hand and with a reassured smile, he went back to building.

Scar stepped back to admire his handiwork and his smile wavered a bit. _That’s a lot of spruce_ he thought, looking from the spruce trapdoors lining the base of the building to the spruce fence posts that made the windows. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, knocking his hat off in the process, _it will have to do_. At least the makeshift wheat and berry farm he made looked nice, and it would actually be functional, _well the berries might not have been worth it_ the landscaper smiled a little, exasperated, as he ran his hands over the many tiny scratches left all over his hands from clumsily picking the sweet berries.

Scar looked up at the rapidly dimming sky and stifled a yawn, it was getting unpleasantly chilly so the landscaper put his hat back on his head, quickly added a fireplace to the cottage and huddled in front of it, letting his eyes drop, lulling into a welcome rest from the day’s many events.


	3. Chapter 3

The fact that Cub had drones would, in any other situation, make Grian at least slightly concerned, but in this moment it comforted him.

The builder let himself fall backward into the tall grass surrounding the firepit and pulled out his communicator. He clicked back through the previous messages, checking to see if he’d missed something useful. As he expected, he didn’t find anything.

He was pretty sure Scar and Doc mostly talked over private messages anyway.

He sighed and dropped his communicator, letting it fall onto his chest, closing his eyes.

Grian heard soft footsteps in the grass and then the sound of someone sitting next to him, he opened his eyes and looked up. Ren was sitting there, smiling at him, though the smile didn’t reach his eyes.

“You’re looking a bit stressed out there G.”

“I- yeah, it’s just that I only saw Scar like an hour ago.” The builder pulled his hands down his face. “I know I couldn’t have but I feel like.. I should have known something would happen and should have stopped it.”

Ren nodded, “Yeah, of course, you couldn’t have known, it is hard to be that last person who saw one of them though..” Ren looked up at the late afternoon sky.

“Well anyway.. Those two are pretty strong, in their own ways, so even if something has happened I’m sure they’ll bounce back!” He looked like he was telling himself that as much as he was telling Grian.

“What do you mean by in their own ways?”

“Oh well, I’m sure you know Scar isn’t the best at combat, staying alive and the like-”   
“The first time I ever saw him he drowned right in front of me,” Grian smirked,

“-Exactly, but man, he is one of the most positive people I have ever met! No matter what happens he looks on the bright side and keeps going!”

The builder nodded, Scar did always seem to be in a good mood.  _ Doc, however... _

“And Doc! He can seem scary but that’s all an act ..I think.. He’s of course pretty great at combat and the dude is super smart I mean,” Ren wildly gestures in the general direction of area 77. “So no matter what, I’m sure they’ll be fine-”

Simultaneously their communicators buzzed and they both scrambled to read the chat.

  
  


**< cubfan135>** Something strange is going on in area 77

**< cubfan135>** Every time I get close to a certain machine my drones malfunction

**< cubfan135>** Didn’t see Doc or Scar though

  
  


“So they’re not there… is that good or bad?” Grian asked.

“Gooood?” Ren answered, his voice full of uncertainty.

  
  


**< Renthedog>** Uh, X?

**< Xisuma>** So I checked their data and it says they respawned but their communicators are offline so I don’t think they can see this and I can’t see their coordinates

**< Xisuma> ** Cub meet me by iTrade

**< Xisuma> ** Ren you too if you can

  
  


The builder looked at the chat and then back to Ren. “So uh... I guess I should stay here then?”

He wrung his hands nervously. 

He felt worried for Doc and Scar and wanted to help, but Xisuma  _ did  _ just say Cub and Ren. He didn’t really know the two of them all that well anyway. 

“You can if you want to, but you don’t seem to want to my dude, so you should probably come,” Ren said tilting his head slightly to the side.

“Well, it’s just that I want to help, but X said just you, and I don’t know Scar or Doc all that much, so... I’m not sure how much use I’d be anyway.” The builder said quickly, stumbling over his words a bit.

“Ah... Well, there’s always helpful things to be done my dude, even if it’s just getting other people food while they do their part.”

“Oh, so I should be a maid?” Grian joked, trying to lighten his mood.

“Well maybe not that, but you get what I’m trying to say! Hold on, I’ll ask X if you can come.” 

Ren typed a quick message into his communicator and a few awkward seconds went by as they waited for a reply.

“He said of course, you will be helpful since you’ve spent so much time near area 77!”

Grian smiled and nodded, strapping on his elytra “Thanks.”

Cub and Xisuma were already standing outside iTrade as Grian and Ren flew in.

“Ah, they’re here.” Xisuma’s voice crackled out of his helmet’s speakers.

The prankster landed gracefully right next to the admin, Ren however missed the mark slightly and had to jog back to the group.

“You’re getting really good at that Grian,” Xisuma smiled, although it was a little hard to tell behind the face mask. The builder grinned.

“Okay,” The admin clapped his gloved hands together, “Let’s have a bit of a briefing to make sure everyone is on the same page!”

Xisuma looked around until everyone had nodded.

“Who was the last person to see either Scar or Doc?”

“I saw Scar this morning, he was doing his usual perimeter check.” Grian piped up.

“Was there anything unusual about him?” The admin asked.

“No, not that I could tell anyway...”

Xisuma noded “anything else? When was the last time anyone saw Doc?”

“Yesterday I saw him heading to area 77, at around lunchtime. But not since then.” Ren said once it was clear no one else was going to speak.

“And everything was normal with him?” 

“I mean he was 30 blocks in the sky, I guess he seemed normal?”

The admin nodded. “Not seeing him much isn’t that unusual I suppose, Doc does tend to keep to himself. Okay Cub, you said something strange happened when you tried to check out the area?”

“Yes sir, there is a smoking machine in one of the hangers. Every time I tried to bring a drone close to it the drone would malfunction. My hypothesis is that the machine is somehow messing with electrical devices, which would also explain their communicators not working. I suggest, after taking the necessary precautions, we check out the machine in person.”

Xisuma scratched the bottom of his helmet, thoughtfully. 

“Well, that does seem to be our only lead.”

The admin clapped his hands together once again “Right, Cub I need you to figure out exactly how close the drones can get before malfunctioning. In the meantime, you two make some useful potions, healing, regen etcetera, I’ll see if I missed anything in the world’s files.”

____

  
  


Xisuma sat in his geometrical base, flicking through the admin screens shown on his communicator. It was a difficult slog through the code; usually, it would be fairly easy to get a player’s coords through their communicator, but with Doc and Scar’s both apparently not working... He should be able to at least work out which dimension they were in, that would narrow down the search by a lot.

After a bit of searching through each dimension's logs, he was able to confirm that the two missing hermits were in the overworld, and he hoped for simplicity's sake they would stay there.

_ So they’re in the overworld, but not in their beds or at spawn. So their spawn location must have been changed. _

**_Scratch, scratch, scratch_ **

Xisuma ran his finger down the underside of his helmet, the paint was peeling from the many times he did this while thinking, and he pulled up Scar’s player code.

  
  


**[default spawnpoint set=false]**

  
  


**[sleep spawnpoint set=false]**

  
  


**[custom spawnpoint set=true]**

  
  


_ They had a custom spawn? Only admins could change that. Something very strange was going on indeed. _

The admin wrote in the command to reset Scar’s spawnpoint and hit enter.

  
  


**[default spawnpoint set=true]**

  
  


**[default spawnpoint set=false]**

  
  


Within a second the command was changed back to its incorrect configuration. Xisuma re-entered the code and tried again, with the same result.

The admin frowned and tried doing the same to Doc’s file, and as he expected it also refused to change.

Xisuma went back to scratching his helmet and staring at the wall. He’d probably sat there for a full ten minutes before his communicator buzzed, pulling him out of thought.

  
  


**< cubfan135> ** the minimum distance the drones can get to the machine is 20 blocks

**< cubfan135> ** the closest with no interference whatsoever is 40 blocks

**< Xisuma> ** Okay is everyone ready? Let’s meet at the hippie camp

  
  


_ Good, they could actually get to doing something about this. _

The admin stood up, cracked his back, and stretched his shoulders before strapping his on his elytra. 

He really didn’t feel like dealing with the nether environment right now.

The admin flew over the shopping district and the surrounding areas, it was really amazing what the hermits had achieved with their massive and beautiful builds. The wind whipped past Xisuma’s helmet, he was glad for the helmet’s noise dampening capabilities, it made flying much more peaceful. After a good few minutes, the admin spotted the clearing he was searching for and gently spiraled down to land. Grian was sitting next to the fire sorting out potions while trying to make awkward conversation with Cub, who was standing by one of the vans with a cold calculating look to his eyes.

“Okay dudes here’s the rest of the golden apples,” Xisuma heard Ren as he walked out of the van Cub was standing by. “Oh X, you’re finally here!” Ren blurted out. “I mean, not to say you took too long, just longer than we were expecting.” He shifted a little.

The admin just shrugged and said 

“Right, so is everything prepared?” Everyone nodded. “Okay. I suggest we have some dinner before we head off.”

The three of them looked at each other questioningly. 

“Isn’t it a bit early for that?” Cub pointed out, his eyebrow raised.

“Don’t want to be hungry in the middle of an infiltration mission!” Xisuma said indignantly as he pulled out a golden carrot. 

The admin passed around the food as Grian put down some carpet as a picnic blanket, everyone sat down and started eating. The builder would occasionally glance up at the admin, he had never seen Xisuma take his helmet off, let alone eat.

Seeing the newest hermit’s glances the admin chuckled, he reached to both sides of his jaw and turned a little knob on each side.

**_Click_ **

The lower half of the helmet unhinged and hung just below his chin, clips stuck up from the unhinged half, giving the illusion of teeth.

“Tada,” Xisuma said, the way he talked was strange, making sure to only speak while exhaling and then pausing while he breathed in through his nose, which was still covered by the upper helmet.

“Dunno what I expected but it wasn’t that.” Grian murmured out loud before going back to his meal, his curiosity satiated.

They sat in silence for a little while until-.

“Mr Ex-eye-su-ma-void, what did you just do?!” The builder blurted out, horrified.

“Uh- I ate a carrot?”

“You ate the  _ whole _ thing! Including the leaves!”

“Well it would be a waste if I didn’t!” The admin said matter of factly before eating another carrot, leaves and all.

“He’s always like this with food, you’ll get used to it Gri,” Ren chuckled

The builder shivered, shook his head, and went back to eating his carrot, the  _ normal  _ way.

“Right, is everyone finished?” Xisuma stood and dusted his hands off. The group around him nodded, Grian and Ren seeming nervous while Cub’s expression was as cold as it had been since Scar went missing.

The admin nodded and silently the group divided up the supplies and donned their armour, most of the group chose to wear chest plates, but Grian decided he would rather have the mobility of an elytra.

And with that, they headed off. Cub led the way, silently weaving in and out of the trees surrounding the camp.

“While every time I’ve checked there were no dangers until the drone entered the hanger, I still suggest we be very cautious. Who knows what they’ve been up to.” The scientist said in a low tone and the group all nodded in agreement.

As they jumped through the wide fence surrounding the area Xisuma instructed them into a formation; Cub and Grian stood side by side in the front, while the admin and Ren took up the rear.

“Make sure to keep an eye on your area.”

With a simple point from Cub directing them, the group made their way over the large empty runways, the air crackled with anticipation.

Their footsteps echoed as they stepped through the half-open rolling door, they stopped to take in the sight. About 60 blocks away, the massive grey smoking machine sat, quietly making sparking noises. Several drones were scattered around the hangar, Xisuma supposed from Cub’s distance testing.

“Alright, I’ll stay here and guard the entrance, leave your communicators here as well so they don’t get fried,” The admin said as he watched the group split up to search the area.

Xisuma sighed, he hated staying back like this but he couldn’t really get much closer, not with the risk of his helmet 

So the admin busied himself with trying to pull every detail he could about the machine from this distance.  _ It looked strangely familiar, the shapes of the panels on each side, that he could see, and the little cubes of light scattering the surface. if the main body of it were orange instead of grey it would look exactly like a giant- _

“Dude, X, there’s a computer here with what looks like admin stuff on it” Ren called out, cutting through Xisuma’s thoughts.

_ So that’s exactly what it was. _

“I’m going to have to have a stern talking to those two once they’re back, jeez...” the admin’s helmet crackled. 

Xisuma’s eyes followed Cub as he determinedly walked around, inspecting various parts of the machine. The admin could see the scientist's lips moving as if he were talking to himself, he squinted and managed to make out ‘have to get rid of the-’ before his line of sight was cut off by Cub walking behind the device.

There was a pause before the scientist called out, “Well I think I found a way to shut it off,” 

“Oh good job Cub! What is it?” Xisuma called back before-

**_CRACK_ **

**< cubfan135 was electrocuted>**


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Couldn't get this chapter proof read by someone else so I'm sorry if there's a drop in quality regarding that

The tiniest sliver of Doc’s eye cracked open and squinted at a beam of light shining through the window, he felt sluggish. Without moving the broken cyborg surveyed the room looking for any threats or things out of place. The floor was a cold stone, at least where he was laying it was, the other half was a mixed wood. Before getting much further with his analysis the sunbeam caught his attention once again, it was causing the patch of stone it fell on to look unbelievably comfortable, without much more of a thought to it he shuffled into the sunray and curled up on the slowly heating stone. 

He could have laid there for mere seconds to whole hours, he hadn’t the slightest idea but eventually he went back to studying his surroundings.

The  cave building he was in was comforting, though the cyborg couldn’t really place why, he did think it could have done better with some bigger windows and perhaps some  nesting material bedding.

Doc flicked his tongue out a few times, tasting the air. It tasted of freshly dug dirt, recently chopped wood and something familiar that he couldn’t put his finger on.

The only furniture to speak of in the room was a crafting table with a.. Doc squinted at the object on the table, it felt familiar but for some reason he couldn’t think of what it was. 

The only other point of interest to Doc in this now thoroughly analyzed area was, next to the crafting table, a player curled up next to a now smoldering fire.

The cyborg’s heart jumped into his throat and his quills raised threateningly before he came to his senses, why would he be afraid of a player? Let alone a sleeping one.

Doc squinted at the player, he was familiar, a friend.

The cyborg tasted the air again before coming to the conclusion that the familiar smell, the player, was Scar.

Doc stood up, something that was surprisingly difficult for him to do, his legs just didn’t seem to want to coordinate with what he was telling them to do. 

He stretched and shuffled over to the familiar device he had spotted on the crafting bench next to  the player Scar.

The cyborg picked up the communicator and plopped back down in his sunbeam, the communicator was warm in his hand as he randomly jabbed at buttons.

**< Docm77> ** Bnsdbla;?

**< message was unable to send>**

He felt he should really know how to use this, it might help if he could see the buttons. Doc squinted to try to get some clarity out of his vision before sighing in frustration and simply hugging the communicator to his chest, at least it was warm.

After sitting for a few more minutes the cyborg considered his situation, there was no food and he was sure  the pla- Scar wouldn’t be able to hunt for himself, he was notorious for being bad at combat afterall. 

Well, he wasn’t going to find food by sitting in a sunbeam all day so he shakily stood and peaked out the door.

The light was harsh compared to the dull interior of the  ca- house and Doc squinted as he flicked out his tongue, there was a mild breeze that carried the taste of the wilderness. As his eyes adjusted the cyborg noted a patch of straw as well as some berry bushes planted neatly in a row. 

The straw was excellent, he could use that as  nest- bedding material to keep Scar and himself warm, the berries however, not so much. There was no use for the awful thorny plants that foxes seemed to love so much, Doc wrinkled his nose at the bushes before turning away from the crops and headed off to hunt for food.

Doc perched on the edge of a riverbank, glaring intently into the water for the slightest hint of movement, the cyborg was so close to the gently flowing water that tiny droplets were hitting his face.

He waited.. And waited.. 

Until a shadow under the water twitched.

Doc lunged his neck forward, except his neck wasn’t the length his instincts told him it should be. 

The force of the lunge caused him to lose his grip on the riverbank and topple right into the stream, the cyborg’s eye stung for a split second before his third eyelid closed to protect from the frigid waters. Doc coughed and sputtered as he paddled to the bank, splatting wetly on the dirt. 

At least he caught the fish.

Grumpily the half creeper shook off the worst of the wet and swallowed his catch before preparing to fish for another.

Several involuntary baths later, Doc bit down on his final catch, holding it in his jaws tightly till it had stopped moving. He was finally full and had caught enough to feed Scar, so with some fish in his inventory and the communicator held to his chest he headed back.

______

  
  


All the monitors in the room blinked out at once and the room was silent for a few moments.

_ What happened? Did Cub touch a power switch or was that a coincidence, more importantly was Cub okay?! _ Thoughts raced through Xisuma’s mind, quickly becoming jumbled nonsense.

As the admin tried to clear his thoughts Grian ran behind the machine where Cub was only moments earlier. His items were scattered all over the ground, surrounding a thick, sparking cable that had been cleanly sliced through with an axe which was still lodged in the concrete, causing small cracks to emanate from the point of impact.

“He cut through the power cord!” the builder shouted indignantly as he gathered up the various tools and other items that littered the floor.

“Oh my, that-that was rather foolish of him wasn’t it?” words stumbled out of Xisuma’s mouth as he pulled out his communicator and started typing. He noted that Cub’s communicator had disappeared and presumably respawned with him, it was good news that that feature was at least working.

Both Ren and Grian ran to grab their own communicators as in the middle of the admin’s composition of a panicked message to Cub, the device buzzed.

  
  


**< Cubfan135> ** Guys I’m ok

**< Cubfan135> ** I spawned in my bed at ConCorp

**< Renthedog>** Dude! What were you thinking!

**< Xisuma> ** With what is happening right now, that was very foolish of you Cub

**< Cubfan135>** Did it work?

  
  


Xisuma sighed “Can one of you check if the machine still messes with electronics?”

Ren and Grian both stared at each other briefly before the prankster held his communicator at an arm's length away and started edging towards the device.

He edged closer and closer till the communicator was pressed against one of the large panels on the machine. To his relief the communicator seemed to not be affected whatsoever.

“I think it’s fine now Xisuma” Grian called over his shoulder.

The admin nodded and took a deep breath before striding over to the machine, to his and everyone else relief his helmet stayed in perfect working order.

Xisuma circled the cube, taking in all the information he could before he wandered over to the monitor that seemed to be connected to the main control panel. There were notes scrawled all over the small seating area in front of the screen, of which the admin recognised the chicken scratch as Doc’s handwriting, all of the notes were in german.  _ Are these in german so no one else can read them?  _ He found himself wondering. 

Xisuma shook his head, he didn’t have to see the notes to know what this was.

“It appears Doc has been trying to create a command block”

_______

  
  


“So they somehow ran a command to reset their spawn and the block got stuck looping it which of course made it impossible for me to reset.”

Cub poked at the bonfire with a stick he found poking out from under one of the hippie van’s tires, not really listening to what Xisuma was saying. 

He had gotten a thorough scolding from their admin when they met back up at the camp, not that he cared much. It had gotten them one step closer to finding Scar and Doc and that was all that mattered to him. “Obviously I reset their spawns as soon as I could but I’m sure they’ll be taking extra care to not die so we’re going to still have to search for them.” The scientist noted that Xismua was scratching the bottom of his helmet again. “Tomorrow I’ll set up a serverwide meeting so we can let everyone else know exactly what’s going on. First though!” The admin clapped his hands together, “we should sleep! We won’t be much use as tired bumbling messes.” He turned to the two present hippies “would it be too much to ask if Cub and I might stay here for tonight?”

“Oh-uh- of course man! I mean it’s not too much at all” Ren blinked rapidly as Grian was already crafting some extra beds.

“It’s going to be quite squishy but we should be able to fit everyone” The jumper wearing builder said as he pushed the extra beds into the vans.

“I’ll head back to concorp” Cub stood and dusted off his arms. They weren’t dirty but they still felt strange from the electrocution.

“You should probably stay here my frien-” before the admin could finish his sentence the scientist was off, flying away from camp. 

_ I can’t just sleep while my friends are in danger.  _

Cub thought this as he did a wide circle around the camp, heading back to area 77, hopefully without anyone else noticing. He flew directly into the hanger and came to a skidding halt.

Meticulously the scientist went around the room gathering anything that seemed suspicious or useful such as Doc’s notes and the broken drones. He had tried to pick up the sparkling blue shards scattered around a desk with various gadgets on covering it but they shocked him when he did so, so eventually he decided to leave those behind.

The scientist stuffed his inventory closed as he flew off to the hermitville nether portal. He took a deep breath before stepping into the swirling purple matter, closing his eyes as he felt like his lungs were turning inside out. Going through portals was never fun.

He stumbled out on the other side of the portal, coughing and spluttering from the combination of dry burning hot air of the nether and the sensation of his insides flipping over.

After the scientist had regained his composure he marched off in the direction of the concorp portal.

About halfway along his journey through the repetitive halls of the outer edges of the nether hub something ran in between his legs, Cub jumped to the side and flung his hand to the hilt of his sword before he realised just exactly what it was that he had seen.

The soft creature wove in and out of the scientist’s legs meowing. 

“Jellie! You scared the life outta me!” She looked up at him with wide innocent eyes, he sighed and picked her up. “You know Scar doesn’t like you going through the nether” The cat purred and stuck her face under the scientist’s beard. He chuckled and continued on his journey at a less urgent pace, scritching the kitty under her chin along the way.

As Cub came to the large hole in the floor that led to the main hub area his bit his lip thinking about how he would get down with Jellie in his arms. After clicking his teeth together a few times in thought, the scientist decided to just stuff Jellie in his shirt and take the consequences that came with it. The cat yeowled unhappily as she was pushed into the fabric “Yes Jellie I know, this should only take a few seconds.” He flicked his elytra open and glided into the cavernous hub, wincing as sharp claws dug into his chest.

Cub landed with a soft  **tink** on the glass floor and Jellie scrambled out of his clothes, scratching him a few more times on the way. She gave him a look of disgust that only a cat and maybe Doc could manifest, “well this is why Scar doesn’t like you coming in here!” Jellie only sneezed in response and stalked off to the Concorp portal.

The scientist sighed and followed, holding his breath as he stepped through the portal in an attempt to combat the teleportation induced nausea. As he came through he inhaled the cool overworld air deeply before heading back off at a quickened pace as the situation he was briefly distracted from washed back over him.

The scientist shut the door to his surveillance room, a bit louder than he intended. There was a loud  **YEeeOOWL** from outside the door as Jellie complained about being locked out. Cub ignored her.

A loud clattering reverberated through the room as he threw the broken drones onto a spare space on his desk.

The scientist really didn’t understand how Xisuma could sleep at a time like this, he got to work, carefully dismantling the drones one by one.

By the time Cub had finished fixing all of the drones the sun was peeking over the horizon, he rubbed his drooping eyes and gently slapped his cheeks. He had to stay up until his friends were found.


	5. Chapter 5

Grian rolled over and pulled his pillow over his head. He was really regretting having Xisuma sleep in his van, he didn’t snore but the sound of his helmet pumping air was almost worse. It was funny that Grian never noticed the sound it made before now when it suddenly seemed so intrusive.

After who knows how much longer spent tossing and turning, the builder had had enough. He crept out of bed with a silence that could only be granted from all his practice sneaking around during his many mischievous activities.

He sat in front of the embers left of the campfire earlier that evening, it was a chilly night but that only made the warm embers and his signature red jumper cozier.

Slowly the moon and stars seemingly rotated around Grian, he stared up at them, finding patterns and pictures in the glowing dots before they glided over the horizon one by one.

The sun was yet to rise when the door to Grian’s van creaked open but he didn’t move even as he heard the soft crunching of grass beneath thick boots.

“You’re up early!” Xisuma noted cheerfully, his speakers accentuating the roughness of his morning voice.

“I could say the same to you.” The builder replied, the flatness in his tone perhaps betraying his lack of sleep.

“Ah… Did you not sleep well my friend?”

Grian stared at the gradually lightening sky for a little longer before sighing and sitting up, finally looking at his admin. He looked relatively cheery, though it was admittedly a little hard to tell when the only part of his face that was visible was a portion of his eyes.

“Yeah, I mean no, I mean I’m a light sleeper and I’m not really used to sharing a sleeping space.”

“Ah I see… Well I’m awake now so you should really head back inside and try to get some rest.”

Xisuma pulled a bundle sticks out of a nearby shulker box, chucking them on the barely glowing coals. Grain simply grunted in response before letting out a yelp as two gloved hands hoisted him up from under the arms with surprising ease, though to be fair the builder wasn’t exactly heavy. “Go on, to bed with you!” The admin chuckled, giving him a gentle shove in the direction of the van before taking Grian’s spot in front of the fire.

The builder huffed to himself even if he had to admit the admin was right while he dawdled to the van, as the door shut with a gentle  **_click_ ** he heard a different sound emanating from the admin. A quiet 

**_Scritch scratch scratch_ **

He peeked through the window in the door at the server’s admin. He was staring into the flames that were gently catching onto the new fuel that had been tossed into the pit, scratching the bottom of his helmet.

He suddenly looked a lot less cheery.

______

  
  


Scar awoke to a rather unpleasant smell emanating from somewhere next to him. The landscaper groaned and pulled his hat over his nose. 

He opened a single eye, as the sleep cleared from his vision Scar spotted where the smell was coming from. Next to where he was laying, sitting on the crafting bench, was a fish. A thoroughly chewed on fish.

“...what?”

The landscaper blinked at the fish, as if waiting for it to do something. When it didn’t Scar changed his focus to looking around the room and quickly came to the realisation that Doc was no longer there. 

“O-oh no” Scar muttered as his thoughts raced.

_ Had Doc died? If he did where would he have respawned, would he have respawned? Maybe he was fine, maybe he just wanted some fresh air or, or... _

The landscaper pushed his eyes shut and shook his head, something around him rustled. Confused, Scar felt the ground around him. It was covered in dry strands of.. Wheat?

Slowly he opened his eyes, looking down. Sure enough, it was wheat, why was he covered in wheat?

_ First a fish next to me and now I’m covered in wheat?? Did.. Did Doc do this? _

The landscaper looked around the room for any other strange occurrences, his eyes fell upon a large white swath of cloth hanging over the closed door. 

It was Doc’s coat.

Scar, with the aid of the wall, got to his feet and brushed the loose straw away. He wandered over to the door and went to open it so he could pull the coat down, with this he noticed two things, the coat was damp and something was blocking the door.

“Uh-hello? Doc?” the landscaper called out hopefully.

There was a distinctly ‘Doc’ grunt from the other side of the door before the weight keeping it closed disappeared and Scar swung it open.

“Doc! Oh my gosh I was so worried- Are you okay?” The landscaper looked down at the half creeper. 

He was sitting in the dirt with his eye closed, hugging his communicator to his chest and apparently not paying Scar much attention.

It was a good few seconds before Doc, with a furrowed eyebrow mumbled “Mmokay.”

The landscaper’s face cracked into a relieved smile and he leapt towards the half creeper with his arms stretched out, tears in his eyes.

As Scar came in for the hug Doc’s eye snapped open, soon followed by an ungodly hiss as he tensed his body, his quills stuck straight out in a defensive stance, like jagged rocks at the bottom of a canyon.

Seeing the cyborg’s panic, the landscaper tried to stop his lunge but it was too late, the best he could do was squeeze his eyes shut and hope the quills didn’t hurt too bad.

Then something hit the landscaper’s chest.

He had stopped falling.

Scar peeked one eye open, Doc’s face was contorted with fear, anger, and confusion. But he had his arm out and was holding the landscaper back, preventing him from getting hurt but also from embracing him.

They stayed like that for what seemed like an eternity but was in reality probably only a few seconds, both breathing heavily.

Doc pushed Scar back onto his feet and the half creeper’s quills relaxed slightly, though the landscaper still wouldn’t take his chances on touching them, as he picked his up communicator from where he dropped it and held it back to his chest.

Scar swallowed, the air felt thick with tension.

“Ah.. Sorry I, I guess I forgot you didn’t like hugs?” 

While it was true that Doc tended to stay away from physical contact it was always more of a general avoidance rather than fear.

Doc had looked  _ scared _ when Scar had tried to hug him.

Realisation dawned on Scar.  _ Doc reminded him of a stray cat lashing out, not because it was mean but simply because it was confused and scared.  _

“Hey Doc.. does your robot stuff.. change how you think?”

The creeper’s eye darted around, not that it was easy to tell with the black sclera, and his tongue flicked as if searching for the answer outside of himself, before settling back on Scar, a defeated look on his face.

The tongue flick caught Scar off guard, sure he knew that creepers did that and even Python did it often but he’d never seen Doc do it.

“Is that question too hard for you to answer right now?” Scar asked sympathetically and Doc nodded.

That pretty much answered the question anyway.

_____

  
  


Grian woke up to the sound of muffled conversation, he yawned and rubbed his eyes. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been asleep but he felt worlds better. The builder sat up, smoothed out the wrinkles forming in his jumper and attempted to tame his hair before opening the door, Xisuma and Ren were sitting around the fire which had some pork resting over it. Grian noted amusedly that Ren was only wearing his fluffy creeper print pj pants which weren’t exactly unusual but funny nonetheless.

“Grian! You didn’t sleep very long my friend, are you sure you’re rested enough?” The admin tilted his head, his eyebrows furrowed.

The Builder cracked his back and nodded “Yeah I feel like I got my regular amount of sleep. Great fashion choices as always Ren” He added with a smirk

“Dude! They’re super comfy okay!” The shirtless man replied defensively, meanwhile Xisuma looked at Grian with a mildly disapproving look before turning back to the food he was cooking. “Well as I was saying, I sent out the meeting notification. I said it would be at Sahara, so I hope that’s alright.” At the mention of this Grian pulled out his communicator.

  
  


**< Xisuma> ** Everyone who is available, there’s a meeting today outside of Sahara

**< Xisuma> ** 1:00pm sharp

**< Cubfan135> ** It should be sooner than that.

**< Xisuma> ** Everyone needs to be awake Cub

**< joehillssays>** I will endeavour to make my way to that location at the appropriate time.

**< iJevin>** dude i was sjut about to sleep

**< falsesymmetry> ** Wait why?

**< Xisuma> ** Will explain at the meeting

  
  


“one pm? So what are we going to do for four and a half hours?” The prankster asked as he sat down next to Ren.

“Well first we should start with breakfast of course.” The admin replied, holding up one of the skewered pork chops. “Also we should get dressed” He added, staring pointedly at Ren

“Aww fine.” The shirtless man whined as he got up and wandered over to his van, a weirdly large amount of clanging followed as he presumably got dressed.

**_Click_ **

Grian looked up, Xisuma’s helmet had been unhinged and was hanging below his chin, the helmet giving off its familiar end creature visage.

“You gonna eat the stick too?” The prankster snarked as the admin brought pork chop to his lips-which the prankster noted in the morning light, were tinged purple, was he cold? The admin exaggeratedly rolled his eyes before taking a bite, Grian grinned before taking a bite of his own chop.

A loud voice interrupted the momentary silence “I’m back baby, ladies get in line!” Ren proudly flicked his suspenders before spotting the now cooked food. “Oh, breakfast!” He jogged over and took his seat, grabbing the pork and ripping a chunk out with surprising savagery.

They sat there in silence, aside from the occasional grunt from Ren, for about ten minutes before Xisuma clicked his helmet back into place.

“Right” The admin was sitting with his hands together but Grian noticed that they twitched in a clapping motion regardless “first things first, we should probably gather some resources for the people who’re willing to help in the search.”

Grian chucked down all of the supplies he’d gathered behind the makeshift podium he’d thrown together for Xisuma. The admin had said that the podium wasn’t really necessary but it made the builder feel productive regardless.

The first person to arrive was, unsurprisingly, Cub. He briefly looked disdainfully at the chosen meeting location before heading over to Xisuma, handing him a few shulker boxes.

Slowly various hermits filtered into the location, False wandered over and stood near the back, her head cocked curiously. Next appeared Impulse seemingly looking around for someone else before pulling out his communicator and typing on it. 

“I wasn’t going to forget Iskall really! Probably!” Grian heard a familiar voice as his well-dressed friend appeared being dragged by the arm.

“Mumbo, you totally already forgot when I came to get you-Hi Grian” The Swede let go of the redstoner’s arm and waved. 

The prankster tried to gather his usual enthusiasm before deflating and just giving a half-smile in response.

“Dude… are you ok?” Mumbo asked, his eyebrows furrowing. Before Grian could answer a clap echoed around the area.

“So, I’m sure you’re all wondering why the sudden meeting.” The speakers on Xisuma’s helmet crackled with the strain of being turned up far beyond their usual volume.

“I feel there’s no use mincing words so I’ll get right to the point, Doc and Scar are missing.”

A few gasps sounded from the crowd and worried glaces were shared all around, a silence began to hang over the crowd before being interrupted by a yell and then Tango skidding on the grass, trying to recover from a steep descent via elytra meanwhile Zedaph simply face planted into the dirt.

“We’re not late I promise” Tango spluttered as muffled noises came from the dirt beside him. “Don’t mind Zed he’s just practicing being a worm.” Tango grinned before noticing the somber atmosphere and quieting down, heading over to Impulse to get filled in.

Xisuma scratched the bottom of his helmet. “As I was saying.”

The admin went into detail over what happened and what the plan was before clapping his hands together softly. 

“Any questions?”


	6. Chapter 6

Doc sat in a patch of sun, watching his friend do… something… Build a shelter perhaps? He glanced up at the towering structure, his poor eyesight failing to make out the exact place it met the sky. He didn’t understand the need for a second shelter, especially one as impractically tall as that one. It didn’t particularly matter he supposed, it seemed to be keeping Scar happy. 

The half creeper heard a rustle and flicked his head up, catching a blur of movement through the berry field. 

Scar’s berry field. 

He leapt to his feet, letting out a horrible hiss and flicking up his quills, flashing as a warning at the intruder. The creature quickly grabbed a berry in its mouth before scampering off. Doc prepared himself to take chase when his concentration was interrupted.

“Doc? Doc are you okay?!” Scar called out, hastily scrambling down the tower, falling the last few blocks. The creeper turned, hissing quietly in annoyance at the loss of the intruder, his quills flattening once again.

“Ow.” The landscaper looked up at Doc. “Oh thank god you’re okay, you really scared me there buddy. Um what happened?” Scar was looking at the half creeper hopefully. Doc took a deep breath and stared at the ground, concentrating on trying to figure out how to make words. He knew he used to be able to communicate with no trouble so why wasn’t he able to now. A hiss escaped his lips as he got more and more frustrated.

“Ah- I’m sorry Doc I shouldn’t have expected-” The creeper’s head flicked up and he glared intensely at Scar, specifically his mouth. “Uh… am I being too loud?”

Doc took a deep breath, opening and closing his mouth several times, trying to force words out of his mouth “Sssssor-ry” he managed to push out before shaking his head and sighing. He pointed to the berry-less bush.

Scar furrowed and raised his eyebrows in confusion “You ate a berry?” Doc scrunched up his face in disgust before shaking his head and gestured further into the spruce forest surrounding him.

“Oh something stole one? A fox maybe?” The creeper nodded in relief before sinking back down onto a sunny patch of ground, clearly worn out by his attempts at communication.

“Well… There’s no need to worry about foxes next time okay?” In response Doc simply hugged his communicator.

As Scar went back to his building Doc began fiddling with his communicator. He felt like it could help him in a way, aside from it being warm. The creeper brought the device mere inches away from his eye, the warmth radiating pleasantly onto his face. It however turned out to make it even harder to see so he brought it back to his lap. Doc pressed through the various menus, trying and failing to glean any meaning from the markings all over the screen.

  
  


**< Docm77> ** khsa

**< message was unable to send>**

**< Docm77> ** akl rua

**< message was unable to send>**

  
  


When that didn’t work he quietly let out an annoyed hiss. He tried holding the communicator to his ear.

**_Bzzzzzzzzzzt_ **

The device hummed with redstone, the noise felt strangely familiar, like when a noise you didn’t realise you could hear suddenly stops but reversed. It was comforting.

_____

  
  


“How was I meant to know such a serious thing had happened!” Tango threw his arms out, Zedaph ducking from the intuition you can only gain from getting smacked in the face hundreds of times. “Ack! We’re such jerks!”

Tango, Zedaph and Impulse stood off to the side as most of the other hermits filtered over to Xisuma to offer their help in the search. 

“I fik is fine ango, e ould rolly ust ologise to kes is all'' Zedaph commented unintelligibly while picking dirt out of his teeth.

“Nope, didn’t catch a word of that. Try again buddy.” 

Zedaph sighed and gave up on getting the earthy taste from his mouth “I said. I think it’s fine Tango, we should probably just apologise to X is all.”

“Oh. Yeah. I mean of course! But. Gah!” The netherkin gesticulated, Impulse stepped to the side to avoid the flurry of hands only to get whipped with an equally flailing tail. “I just, I want to do something more y’know, for just barging in like a moron!” He lamented grabbing and pulling his long pointed ears down in distress.

Impulse raised his eyebrow. “Like help with the search?” 

Tango paused for a second, his tail twitching before exploding. “Of COURSE we’re helping with the search-”

“Awesome let's go then” Impulse interrupted with a smile, gesturing to the now free admin. Before Impulse could even take a step in the admin’s direction. 

**_BANG_ **

A rocket firing sounded in his right ear, leaving an unpleasant ringing wracking through his head.

Tango flew about ten blocks, landed and involuntarily somersaulted five more before coming to a halt upside down against the podium Xisuma was standing at.

“Now was that really necessary?” the admin frowns, scratching the bottom of his helmet. Impulse shook his head as he jogged over unable to help himself but smile.

Zedaph looked up to find his friends gone, somehow not having noticed any of the chaos that had just happened, instead being engrossed in studying a peculiarly twisting leaf

“Ah wait for me!” he called as he pocketed the leaf and followed Impulse’s lead, jogging up to the podium.

By the time he got there Tango had managed to mostly stop the world from spinning and he clambered to his feet.

“I’m sososo SO sorry for interrupting like that.” The netherkin blurted out, rocking back and forth on his heels.

“It’s alright Tango- yes Zedaph?” Zedaph lowered the hand he’d raised.

“I’m also sorry.”

The admin couldn’t help but give out an amused sigh, “you two, it’s fine alright?” he brought his hands together. “So, are you three up to helping with the search?”

“Yeah, yes! Of course!” Tango quickly responded, Zedaph and Impulse nodding behind him.

“Excellent!” The admin squeezed his hands together “So, this is the plan.”

Tango flicked through each of the shulker boxes that the admin had given them at a speed that would make most others nauseous.   
“So we’ve got a few stacks of logs, a bunch of food, stuff cookaficator, crafting table and uhh...” Tango clicked his tongue rapidly as he sifted through the box’s contents.

“There are beds and potions in this one.” Zedaph called, his entire head in the shulker box.

“Hmm, enderchests, a lot of them, in case we lose some I suppose. Potatoes, some tools…” Impulse trailed off, “how long do you think we’ll be searching for…” 

“Presumably until they’re found” Zedaph responded, pulling one of the potions out and sniffing it.

“And how long do you think that will take?”

_____

Block after block Scar placed, getting higher and higher into the sky. He wiped the sweat from his brow. The landscaper was sure the other Hermits would come looking for them as soon as they realised something went wrong so he would make finding them as easy as possible.

The tower was made out of spruce of course, it wasn’t like there was much more of a choice. It was an ugly large wooden pole reaching for the heavens. Unfortunately as much as he wanted too Scar felt the building would stand out more if he didn’t detail it so he left it in all its flat unsightly glory. As he worked away a cold droplet splattered down his neck, causing Scar to shiver and look up at the sky. Dark clouds hung low, blanketing the horizon. He bit his lip, scratching the back of his head “guess I should hurry up with this then.”

The landscaper pulled some slabs out of his inventory and built a giant ‘S’, the occasional singular droplets were becoming more and more frequent, threatening to force him to stop building before he was finished.

**_CRACK_ **

Thunder tore through him as Scar began to build the ‘O’. The wind picked up and the landscaper had to clutch his hat to stop it from flying away. By the time the ‘O’ was finished Scar was soaked and shivering, water flowing off his hat in streams. He promised himself as soon as he was finished he would be able to huddle in front of a nice warm fire. 

‘S’ the second he placed down the final slab he swung himself over the side of the building and scurried down the ladder, slipping half the way before managing to gain his grip again.

Despite the brewing strom Doc hadn’t moved much from where Scar had left him, he was laying on his side, his communicator under his head like a pillow.

“Uh- Doc? Are you asleep?” The creeper shook his head and opened his eye, focusing on Scar after a second of looking around.

“C’mon we should get out the rain” Scar said softly, holding out his hand, grasping his arm with his other hand to keep it from shaking from the cold. The creeper squinted at it for a few seconds before grabbing hold. The landscaper smiled and pulled him to his feet. 

Attempted to pull him to his feet. In reality Doc had to do most of the work as Scar realised how heavy the half metal creature was.

Once the creeper was on his feet Scar loosened his hand, Doc however didn’t.

Surprised, Scar shugged to himself and let the creeper keep clinging to him.

His hand was a very strange texture, long soft ridges following the contours of his hand were gripping onto Scar’s skin. Very different from the rough canvas texture of his forehead. It was also incredibly cold, which worried the landscaper.

As they got inside Scar pulled his hand away. “Sorry Doc, I need to get the fire going again.” The creeper briefly wrinkled his nose before heading over to the loose straw the landscaper had woken up in earlier that day and began arranging the mess.

Scar set up a cone of sticks in the fireplace and pulled a flint and steel out of his inventory.

**_Shklick shklick shklick_ **

Sparks flew into the fireplace, smoke began to rise from the sticks as they caught. The landscaper gently blew into the soon to be fire before placing a log, carefully making sure not to smother the tiny flickering flames.

As soon as he was sure the fire was stable he turned back to Doc. The creeper was sitting in a roughly circular pile of straw which was messily woven together to prevent it from spreading around too much, staring out the window at the storm brewing.

Scar debated if he should talk to Doc some more, he wanted to help and the only way he would find out how to do so would be to keep trying to talk to him. But on the other hand Doc seemed to get so upset whenever he tried to communicate. 

The landscaper cleared his throat “So, uh Doc. You ripped up all my wheat to use as… bedding?”

The creeper turned to face Scar and nodded slowly, his tongue flicking as he tried to figure out if he’d done something wrong.

“Oh it just, I was planning on using the wheat to make food for us.” Scar mumbled, thankful he’d decided to plant the berries after all.

Doc looked at the wheat and wrinkled his nose, eyeing Scar like he was crazy before pointing to the half chewed up fish that had been left on the table that morning.

“I would really prefer not to eat that.” The landscaper felt a pang of guilt as he saw the creeper’s face fall. Doc flicked his tongue and picked up the fish holding it out for Scar as if trying to tempt him. The landscaper couldn’t help but recoil slightly from the smell.

“Okay tomorrow if you get another one, I’ll cook it and eat it. I promise.” The creeper gave him an exacerbated look and huffed but he put the fish back on the table. Possibly just so he could go back to hugging his communicator.

There they sat for a time, Doc switching between fiddling with the communicator and when that annoyed him too much, looking out the window almost longingly.

“Uh, I’m not sure what you’re trying to do with your communicator but they’re broken. Mine won’t send anything either” Scar commented, “and it’s all glitchy.”

The creeper looked at the device and then back at the landscaper, running his claws along the back of the screen.

Doc took a deep breath and held it out to Scar and with a hoarse crack in his voice.

“Help.”


	7. Chapter 7

Scar took the communicator as Doc eyed him expectedly. The landscaper shook his head sorrowfully. “I can’t fix it. I’m no good with redstone… We’ll need Xisuma or Mumbo or… We’ll need to get home first.” The creeper tilted his head and pushed it closer to Scar, a pleading look in his eye.

Scar took his hat off and rubbed the back of his head. “I guess I can give it a look through...” Doc’s expression lifted as he nodded.

**_CRACK_ **

The creeper’s head jerked up as a flash of lightning lit up the room. He flicked his tongue and wandered over to the window, looking into the dark sky longingly. 

Before settling down to properly look through the communicator, the landscaper took his dripping hat and jacket off, leaving them to dry near the fire. He tapped Doc on the arm to get his attention, causing him to jump and hiss, briefly raising his quills. Scar raised his hands defensively. 

“A-ah sorry Doc, didn’t mean to startle you” 

The creeper wrinkled his nose in irritation before turning back to the window. “Wait Doc- I was going to suggest letting your coat dry by the fire” The creeper looked at his torn, soaked sleeves before pulling the coat off and tossing it unceremoniously over by the other clothes. Scar took it upon himself to straighten the thing out before going back to blankly staring at the communicator.

It turned out Doc’s communicator had a lot more functionality than Scar’s, even in its broken state. 

There was of course the chat function and coordinates, all communicators had that, but it also had an analytics and a notes section. He further noted the device was extremely warm and he wondered if Doc had made it like that purposefully.

Scar decided to try the analytics first, hoping he wouldn’t have to look through Doc's personal notes, both because it was rude and also because he found reading really not fun.

  
  


Heart rate: 0 bmp

Body temp: 0 °C

P̶̨̧̥͒͛r̵͍̽̀o̴̖̮̱̿͝c̴͉̄̏e̶̗͉͖͑̕s̷͙̮̅͘s̴̳͘ȉ̸̱n̸̬͌̌g̴̮͝ ̸̧̝͎̀͌͗s̷͉̺̎͐p̴̢͙͊ĕ̴̹͔͇̊̿e̴̯̯̍͂̆d̵̳̺̬̈́̊:̸͇̜̋ ̶̧͔͘?̵̮̫̂͒?̸͙̼͈̅͒̍?̴̖̙̣͛̃͝%̵̖͓͕͛

Memory usage: 7̴̢͎̥͇̭͓̤̹͉̻̿͐͑̓̕7̶̨̗̪͇̪̭̹͛̏̀̄̋̋̓͑͝%̷͉̰̠̜̺̯͔̞̈̈́̅̃͆̏̉͝

  
  


The landscaper sighed, rubbing the back of his head. Clearly the analytics would be no help to him so he resigned himself to attempting to sift through the Doc’s notes.

Most of which were in German, some of which were a jumbled mess of corrupted text, one simply said ‘tomato’ until finally, right at the bottom of the list ‘ _ read if cybernetics broken _ ’.

“Praise the lord for you thinking ahead Doc.” Scar mumbled. The creeper in question turned slightly at the mention of his name but quickly went back to his storm watching.

Scar took a deep breath.  _ Okay, reading, amazing _ . He looked down at the messy, corrupted block of text.

Time to bite the bullet.

  
  


_ I wrote this as a last r̵̳̔͐̑e̷͍͉͆̔̏s̷̟̞̎̑̏o̶̻͕̪͆r̸̩͈̋͐t̴͙̏̿ for if my cybernetics screw up to a degree where I am no longer in a state to fix them. If you are reading this either something very dire has happened or you have stolen my comunicator, if it is option 2 then fuck you. _

  
  


Even through the frustration of reading the mangled text, Scar couldn’t help but smile a little at the comment, it felt nice to read something so undoubtedly Doc while the man (creeper?) himself was acting so strange.

He rested the device on his lap, to prevent his hand from getting sweaty from the heat, and sat back against the wall.

The notes continued with a much more technical tone which Scar had a lot of trouble deciphering. There were diagrams which helped a little but certainly not enough for the landscaper to actually be able to fix or even really understand the cybernetics.

While glaring at the diagrams Scar did realise what was causing the fever Doc had, had briefly after the power source was removed from his facial cybernetics. The liquid in the tubes that were wrapped around the battery was actually the cyborg’s blood, by design it was being heated by the power source. There appeared to be a similar set up in his arm. At the time both of those were overheating.

“The blood was burning you from the inside..?” Scar wondered out loud and Doc grunted in response.

Scar winced at the thought and pushed himself to continue reading.

  
  


_ If my m̷̨̜̝̠̼̲̌̌͒̐̕͝ͅạ̸̼͚̹̮̣̱͑̓̃͐́͘i̵̦͙͚̖͈̠̮͝n̴̠̥̖̲̜̐̕ͅb̷̢̻̞̦̝̞̂͒͋͐͛͗͝o̷͙̒͗͛͗͝ā̵̢̛̭͊̾̒̋͠͝ř̶̡̲̗͈̪̺̒̑d̴̨̧̹̹͈͓͈̺̓̽̔ (see diagram 3) was damaged or is unpowered there will be some drastic changes in my behaviour. The board is what keeps my logic and reasoning at a h̷̴̵̴̸̟͔͉̗̬̾͊̔̀̕ų̷̵̶̷̸̛̟̪̙͇͊͆̎͆m̷̴̵̷̷̭͓͇̰̲̄͐́̾ȃ̸̶̶̴̷̹̥̩̖̲̂̒͌̾ṅ̶̵̷̶̷͔̦͔̘̱͒̈̾ level as well as boosting my processing speed, without it I will behave much more like a creeper.  _

_ I will list out behaviors/symptoms to expect but this is more of a hypothesis than fact since I can’t exactly observe myself while I am in this condition. _

_ Greatly diminished vision: Without my cybernetic e̴̟͑n̶̟̂h̴͖̒a̷̢͊n̵̺̅c̴̜͌ė̵ͅm̷͎͝e̸̝̕n̵̮̿t̴̢̚s̶̈́͜ I cannot see with anywhere near the same clarity nor can I see the colour red. _

_ Carnivorous eating habits: Creepers are usually carnivores, I am omnivorous, however I may act as if I were carnivorous. _

_ Sluggishness: I am an ectotherm, I usually avoid the negative aspects of this by using my cybernetics to regulate my body temperature, if that feature is no ̸͓̍l̴̺̾o̵͜͠n̴̻̐ĝ̴̨ê̶͉r̸̼̉ ̵̘͆functioning then I will be a lot m̷̺͐o̴̹͊r̵̨e̵̺̒ ̷̥̈s̷̱͂u̵̱̽s̸̺͆c̷͎̎e̷̫͑p̶̜̈t̵̹͂i̵͍̐b̸͎͂l̵̪͊e̶͎̔ ̴̢̀t̶͇̑o̷̡̊ environmental temperature.  _

  
  


Scar was getting more and more frustrated as the text became exceedingly garbled, the screen also kept flickering which was beginning to hurt the landscapers eyes. He squeezed them open and shut a few times before continuing the trek of a read.

  
  


_ Tongue flicking: C̴̟̓͊͛ͅr̵̖̉ẹ̵̊̂ę̸̤̼̎̊́p̶͚͑ḙ̶͔̮̆̔r̵̡̫̈́̈́s̶͇͒̋̏ smell by flicking their tongue and tasting the air, u̷̹͆ș̵͗u̵̙͗a̴̜l̴̘͒l̷͎͊ÿ̴̠́ ̴͓͝I̸̞̎ disguise this as licking my lips or something similar which I will probably not do in a c̴͔̿̑͗ơ̶̝̟͠m̶̝̀̔p̴̛̖͚͓̑͝r̸̛̖̣̔ọ̷͍̥̈́̅m̸̧̞̈̐ḯ̸̢̘͚̀s̶̟͚͊̈e̴͓̽̓d̴̫͓̺̄̎ state. _

_ Mute: C̵̙͈̚ṛ̶̋̐ẻ̴̠̒̑ę̶̱̱̿̋̈́p̴̜̬̻͛̂̾ḛ̶͙̲̎͂r̸͎̣͕̅͘’̷̨̘͛s̴̨̗̈́̉ can’t talk. Obviously. My language c̸͈̄͗e̵̦͚͎͊͂n̸̻̞̭̈́ẗ̴͇̱̱́r̴̮͔̥̍̿ȇ̷͝ͅ ̴̰̊i̵̦̤̿̾̊ś̸͇͙ ̷̼̃͝͝i̶̭͊n̶̢̖̊̍͐ ̷̯́̈́m̵̜̪͚͝y̸̲͎̕ ̸̰̦̄̑̈́ḿ̸̝̔a̶̖̩͙͋̚i̴̩̦͒͋̿n̵̺̏͜ͅ circuit board, i̷͇͎̿̇f̷̦͑ ̶͎̟̣̔̿̊t̴̯̙̄h̷̨͍̑̅a̷̛̟̿̕ͅt̶͙͌ ̵̗͉̳̓͘i̴̮̐̋͛ṡ̷̘̺͘ damaged I won’t ḃ̷̙e̶͉̦̲̔ ̵̒̓̅͜ả̴̗͖̜͝b̴̠̄̉ͅļ̵͓͛͌e̸̛̼̖̾̌ ̶̰̱̃̃̇t̷̝̀o̵̩͚̚͜ speak. _

_ L̵̻̦̟ǎ̴̖͒n̷̜͊͛͒g̴̨̟̮͝ư̸̛̤͖̣̆ă̶̧̢̛̙ḡ̸̝̤̪̍͝e̸͉̓̈́ ̴̢̥̋̉p̵̤̲̐͝r̵̡̭̆͊͝o̷̼̥̦͊͆̌c̸̡͍̾̉͝ě̶͎̇̓s̵̫̟͒̓s̸̐̔ͅͅi̶̥̇̌͜n̶̹̺̳̎̍ģ̸̤̋:̶̧̞́̅̓ ̷̼̰͝I̸͕̽͠ ̴̰̭͍̎̃͝m̸̺͖̻͋a̷̧͓͌̆y̸̺̽ ̸̢̻̣̃n̸̲̾͗̓ơ̷̩͎̇͝t̷̝͋̌ ̶̩͔̌̾ḅ̸̨̛̀͌e̶͖̱̓̐̈́ ̸̱̣͉̈́̓a̸͙̳͒͆b̶̨̗̫̏͋͠ľ̶͇͙͑ë̶̜́͘ ̵͈̻̏͑͒ͅț̴̯͆̇̒o̴̙̟ ̵̺͉̾ͅu̷̮̺̇̒n̴̥͙̎͝d̸̫̅͛ẹ̶͛ŕ̵̡͕̻s̸͙̋̇t̶̨͇͓̏a̶̺̜̫̓̓ņ̴̝̣͐͝͝d̴͖̘͑ ̶̮̕̚͝a̸̻̣̓̕͠n̸̨̲̞̉̔ẏ̴̺̻̞̂ ̸̭͕̿̽́ľ̶̢å̶̛̖̜̳̐n̴̢̅̈g̶͓̻͊ū̸̩͝ā̸̜͖̙g̶̭̻̓e̸͓̟̘͝ ̶̮͙͑̆a̵͉͓̼̅̔̚t̶̯̘̽̀͝ ̸̝̺̼̂͝ằ̸̳ļ̸̜͔̔̑̄l̵͚̖͖͊͌ ̵̣͝w̵̦͙̝̔h̵͚͆͛̍i̴̯̿̕c̵̹̼̍͗͝h̸̦͛ ̷͚̤̲̈́͒w̸̞͌̐i̴̡̊͌̓ͅl̷̺̄̈̈l̶̥̏ ̴̘̙̊̅l̵̬͓͈̔̋̕ḙ̸͍̀ͅa̵̞̬͗̍͆ḏ̶̉ ̷͑ͅt̶̛̥̅̚ỏ̴̯̞͒ ̷̢͙͉̋͋ç̸̛̖̋o̷͕͋̆͝ń̵̢͕̺͠f̸͎͕̩̿̎u̷͓̓̀̔s̴͖̈́i̴̧͈̯͊͗o̷̗̩̞͂͠n̴̗͗,̷̺̉̎ ̴͔̓f̸̧͉̓e̶̫̰͇̽͆a̴̢͍͒r̸͓̠̃͛̐ ̷̺͛̚ă̴̗̞͌n̸̺͊̆ḑ̵̫̐̈́̏ ̶̳̹̹̂͐̕p̷̡̄r̶̡̔̈́o̴̲͑̏̃b̵̧͍͒a̵͎̔̈́͗b̸͉̎̌l̴̗̬̇̈e̵̛͇̺͋̊ ̴͚̗̾h̴̰̜̣͑̽o̸̫͙͂̇s̸͕̀̈́t̸̩̟̟͒į̷̈́̑ĺ̴̘̙̜͐i̵̱̋̌͝ẗ̷͕̮̺́̓͋ẙ̴̜͊̌͜.̶̜̋͝ _

  
  


**_FIIZZZZZT_ **

The communicator’s screen blinked out.

_____

  
  


“Are we theere yet?” Zedaph whined, slouching as he walked through the dense taiga.

“We’ll get there when we get there!” Tango barked, half in a joking manner but it was clear from his tone and sagging tail he was getting tired as well.

“Well it is kinda getting dark, so I mean we should probably set up camp.” Impulse pointed out with a hopeful smile, he knew how passionate his friend could get about this kind of thing.

“I-We could still-” Tango looked over Zedaph who pouted at him, his bottom lip trembling. “All right, all right, all right. We’ll set up camp in the next clearing."

Impulse went about placing blocks in the small clearing they’d found themselves, building a crude shelter. “Looking snazzy Impy.” Tango remarked, snickering at the oak box.

“Oh yeah let’s see you do better!” Impulse retorted with a lopsided grin.

“Fine I will!”

While the two of them were mock bickering, Zedaph was kneeling on the ground by a fire. He was drawing patterns in the dirt with a stick, mumbling to himself while he waited for food to cook. 

“So if I were to connect this to that and… hmm… well there’s also…”

**_Grroaan_ **

“ZED DUCK!!” 

He immediately pulled his head down. He felt his hair sway from the movement of the air above him.

“Don’t be silly there’s no ducks in minecraft!” he retorted as Tango rushed past, diamond sword in hand. Zedaph scrambled to his feet turning to see what was wrong. A zombie was sluggishly recovering from trying to swing at something, presumably him.

“Get out of here you, you rotten flesh thing!” The netherkin yelled as he swung his sword at the zombie’s chest, slicing through the putrefying torso before kicking it backwards. It fell to the ground with a **_Fwump_** , black liquid oozing from the slice on its front.

Tango dry heaved. “Oh my god that smells so bad”

“Aw it landed right in my schematics…” Zedaph lamented as the body faded, leaving an imprint in the dirt directly over the drawings.

“Should have used paper, Zed.” Impulse pointed out with a sad smile, putting his sword back in his inventory. “Sorry I didn’t react fast enough to help.”

“Uh, you might have another chance, because we’ve got more problems!” Tango called, his red eyes darting back and forth, focusing on something that the two humans couldn’t make out in the darkness.

“Back to back!” Tango held his sword out in front of him defensively. Impulse and Zedaph followed his lead, putting their backs to his in a triangular formation.

They stood there for a tense few seconds.

“Are you sure something-” Impulse started before being shushed loudly by Tango as his ear twitched.

A twig snapped, a leaf rustled, a zombie groaned.

Then another groan. 

And another.

Out of the darkness from all directions a hoard of about thirty zombies drifted out from the trees, their dead eyes lazily focused on their prey.

Tango bared his jagged teeth at the hoard instinctually, even though he knew intimidation wouldn’t work on mindless corpses. He could feel a quiet rumble vibrate through his throat.

Impulse leapt forward, using the force to plunge his sword directly through one of the corpses’ chest. It fell limply to the side, immediately being replaced by another, which Impulse swiftly decapitated.

Tango was swinging his sword wildly, through the arm of one zombie into the side of another. As the next corpse stumbled forward he tackled it, the force being enough to topple the creature even with Tango’s small stature. He twisted just in time to shove the side of his blade into a second zombies mouth, blocking its attempt to bite him. He snarled at the creature before yelping in pain as the corpse beneath him sunk its teeth into his leg.

“Ah? Ah!” Zedaph shoved the zombie he was currently fighting, or rather mostly hiding from, a few feet away and turned towards Tango, who was getting overwhelmed with the shambling corpses. The one underneath him continued to keep it’s jaws firmly clenched around his leg. Unable to shake it off, he instead focused on wrestling his sword out of another’s mouth, behind him a third monster raked its nails down the netherkin’s back, leaving rips in his shirt and lacerations in his skin.

Zedaph jumped into admittedly panicked action. 

“I-Impulse some backup would be great.” He spluttered as he stabbed into the side of the sword chewing corpse, causing it to gurgle and fall to the ground.

Tango plunged his newly freed sword into the neck of the zombie attached to his leg, letting out a quiet whimper as the movement tore the lacerations in his back further.

Impulse quickly dispatched the two zombies in his path and ran to his friend's aid. He wrestled the corpses looming over his friend to the side, forcefully stomping his foot down to keep himself stable. Unfortunately, he stepped directly onto a stick and lost his balance, tumbling onto the grass.

“OW! WATCH IT!” Tango yelped, defensively pulling his tail close to his body. 

Not a stick.

Before Impulse could apologise, he had to deal with the creature now standing directly over him. He held his sword vertically, letting the zombie impale itself as it lunged to attack him. Black ooze splattered onto Impulse’s face which was quickly followed by Tango retching behind him.

Impulse got to his feet, “Zed can you-”

“Yep got it.” He interrupted, jogging over to the ender chest and pulling out the potions box.

“Thanks.” Impulse responded as he inhaled deeply and dispatched the stragglers.

“Oh hush stop being a baby.” Zedaph chuckled as he poured healing potion into the netherkin’s leg wounds.

Tango scrunched up his face and gritted his teeth, waiting for the stinging to settle down.

“Pla-eease if you were in this situation you would totally be curled up in the dirt calling for your mum”

“Ah see, that’s my secret Tango, I don’t get hurt I simply instantly die.”

“Hah! You got that rig-ACK” The netherkin squeezed his eye’s closed as Zedaph poured the last of the potion onto the lacerations down Tango’s back. “Is a little warning SO hard!”

“Oh yeah, much too terribly hard!”

Impulse called from their box of a shelter “Guys come inside, it’s starting to rain.” 

_____

  
  


Doc stared intently at the dark sky, the cascading rain lashing at his face through the window. He needed to go outside.

“Praise the lord for you thinking ahead Doc.” The creeper turned briefly as he heard his name mentioned by Scar who was tiredly analyzing the communicator with furrowed eyebrows.

Not entirely understanding what the landscaper was talking about Doc turned back to the window. He flicked his tongue and tasted the static in the air, he needed to go out, Scar had asked him to come inside though.

He tapped back and forth on his feet before sticking his functional arm out the window. The water landed on his palm and ran down the grooves in his hand, pouring off the sides in tiny streams.

“Burning you from the inside?” Doc was too busy focusing on the storm to take in what Scar was saying but he made a noise in response regardless to signify he had heard.

How mad would Scar be if the creeper went outside, he really had to, his friend would probably understand or he could leave quietly so the landscaper wouldn’t notice.

The creeper glanced over at Scar again, the landscaper seemed to be slowly leaning closer and closer to the communicator in his lap, squinting at the words.

Before Doc could linger more on the topic another flash of lightning tore through the sky and he couldn’t help himself. He crept over to the door, not making a single sound and silently opened it, slipping out.

He needed to get to high ground.

He glanced around before quickly realising that Scar’s strange shelter would be perfect. As he thudded up the ladder he heard the landscaper talking unintelligibly below the howling of the wind, he did understand him calling “DOC??”

The creeper succurried up the ladder as he heard the door slam open.

“Doc what are you doing?!” Scar yelled above the rain only causing the creeper to scurry faster. “You’re going to fall!”

Doc looked down as the landscaper joined him on the ladder, he seemed to have a lot less of a grip on the rungs and was thankfully moving at a snail's pace. He made it to the top, the thunks of Scar following being drowned beneath the storm. The creeper put his arm in the air, trying to become as tall as possible but as he did he spotted something, something that also seemed to have spotted him. 

**_Wrrrrrrrrr_ **

Something was flying towards him.

Doc hissed and raised his quills at the ever approaching flying object, not seeming to deter it in the slightest.

The landscaper crawled over the side of the building, completely out of breath from the panic and effort he’d exerted “Doc what are you do- is that a drone?!”

The object came within arms reach of the creeper and his hissing increased, he could feel something inside him spark but nothing more. So he swiped at the object, raking claw marks in the top and sending it crashing down to earth.


	8. Chapter 8

**_CRACK_ **

Impulse awoke with a start as thunder shook the tiny room. He opened and closed his eyes a few times and looked around, trying to figure out what had awoken him. He yawned and rubbed his face, he was cold, why was he cold?

**_Ftwooo ftwooo_ **

Impulse followed the noise, looking over at the bed pressed up against his own. 

It’s occupant, Zedaph,’s nose was whistling, making rhythmic ‘not unlike a deflating balloon’ sounds. 

He was curled up against the wall with not only his own fluffy pink blanket covering him but Impulse’s cozy yellow one as well. 

So that’s why Impulse was cold. He knew he should have put up more of a fight for the top bunk. Impulse eye’d the bunk in question, making out a twitching silhouette. As if on cue Tango mumbled from above.

“And then you put the inficator into… ...thingamajig.” His arm and tail, which were dangling over the side of the bed, weakly gesticulated even in his sleep.

Impulse smiled and rolled his eyes at the netherkin’s unconscious murmurings as he yanked his covers away from Zedaph who, instead of letting go, rolled over and let his arms be pulled over Impulse along with the blanket.

“Zed, c’mon man” Impulse tried to pry the blanket out of Zedaph’s balled fists but to no avail, eventually giving in as the man curled up next to Impulse, half falling into the tiny crack between the beds.

Impulse let out a deep breath and snuggled back down into his pillow. He didn’t really feel tired but there wasn’t much else he could do aside from lay there so he took comfort in listening to the pouring rain and his friends various sleeping noises.

“Impy?” Tango mumbled, interrupting Impulse’s staring contest with the ceiling

“Yeah?”

“My back hurts”

“Are you actually awake? Or are you talking in your sleep.” He seemed awake but you never knew with Tango, once he had an entire conversation about a new minigame he was planning on making only for it to turn out he was asleep the entire time.

“I’m awake”

“Prove it”

Tango sat up on his knees, put his hands on his back and pushed inwards. His spine made a horrible crunching noise all the way down to his tail. Impulse shivered at the noise.

“Man that sounds so bad”

Tango grinned at Impulse through the darkness, his jagged teeth and almost glowing red eyes cutting through the black. Most other people would find the sight unsettling to say the least but Impulse just rolled his eyes.   
“Hey, my back doesn’t hurt anymore”

“My soul does”

It took Zedaph at least a whole two hours to wake up after the other two and now the three of them sat on their respective beds. Tango and Impulse eating breakfast while Zedaph sewed up Tango’s shirt.

“Be faster, Zed” Tango whined impatiently

“I’m going as fast as I can, would you rather walk around in the rain naked?!” Zedaph responded indignantly.

“At this rate I’ll probably have to!”

Impulse interrupted his friends bickering “I really hope this rain clears up soon… It’s gonna make it really hard to search… not to mention unpleasant” 

“Rain shmain that’s not important, we need to find Doc and Scar sooner rather than later.” Tango looked down and started playing with the tuft of fur on the end of his tail, suddenly looking sullen. “Honestly I’m getting really worried, I’m sure Doc could have usually fixed whatever is up with their communicators by now... Unless they were completely destroyed… Or unless Doc and Scar are... incapacitated.”

A somber silence took over the room as Tango’s words sunk in.

“Here’s your shirt” Zedaph mumbled, chucking the clothing at the netherkin.

_____

  
  


Cub yawned as he stared blearily at his reflection in one of the monitors, taking note of the horrible dark bags that had formed under his eyes. He dragged his hands down his face as if that would do anything aside from accentuate his tired features. He slapped his cheeks trying to force himself to focus. 

Cub was exhausted.

As soon as the serverwide meeting had ended he’d rushed back to his surveillance room, making sure the drones were unattended for as little time as possible.

Although the drones were programmed to inspect any heat sources they came across and determine if it was a player or mob, he couldn’t entirely trust the computer to get it right, especially considering one of the people missing was Doc and who knows what he counted as.

Trying to shake off the fatigue the scientist uncorked and chugged his third speed potion since getting home from the meeting two hours ago, the potion barely making a difference to his energy levels aside from seeming to make his eyes vibrate in and out of focus slightly every now and then. 

He sat back in his chair and put his hands in his lap, trying to concentrate on each of the screens as his eyes threatened to glaze over. He squeezed his eyes shut for a second, trying to force them to focus.

Cub was being shaken.

“-monitor’s flashing. Cub? Cub the monitors-” The scientist groaned, his head was pounding as he gradually squinted a single eye open. It was Grian shaking him.

“Wha time’sit” he mumbled, his mouth not co-operating with his barely functioning brain.

“Four p.m, Xisuma asked me to come check on you. I brought you some food-”

It had only been an hour Cub noted gratefully as he squeezed his eye shut once more, trying to clear the blur from his vision.

“-and you haven’t been answering your communicator since yesterday which was worrying X” the builder continued his rambling.

The scientist’s eyes flew open. “Yesterday?!”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t have woken you but one of the monitors is flashing.” Grian pointed at the offending screen. 

Cub stared at it, his brain working embarrassingly slowly. “Uh… You look so exhausted… Do you need some food?” The builder asked, his voice full of concern.

“I’m fine.” The scientist snapped at him before becoming aware that he was, in fact, incredibly hungry. “...Maybe something to eat wouldn’t hurt.” He admitted, refusing to meet the builder’s gaze as he turned back to the monitor and pulled up the progress logs. “And get me a speed potion.” He added.

Grian huffed as he left the room.

Reading the reports Cub determined that the Drone went offline at about 10:00pm the previous night and the rough location it did so, which the devices were programmed to save every few hours.

That left a search area of about 50x50 chunks. 

He should have been awake, why did he fall asleep when it was so important not to. He swore loudly at himself before slumping back in his chair and putting his face in his hands.

It was possible, probable even, that it was just a cranky phantom that had destroyed the drone but they couldn’t take the chance.

He pulled out his communicator to send a message out to the search teams and winced briefly at all the missed private messages from Xisuma. He decided he would look at those later. Because he had more important things to do right now. Certainly not because he felt immensely guilty.

Cub sent the rough coordinates of the drone in the chat.

  
  


**< cubfan135>** Are there any teams in that area?

**< Tango>** yea

**< impulseSV>** Yeah!

**< cubfan135>** A drone got destroyed close to you

**< cubfan135>** Unable to pinpoint exactly where

**< cubfan135>** See if you can find anything

**< Tango>** you’re the boss captain Cubby!

  
  


Cub sunk into his chair and settled back into watching the monitors. He wouldn’t allow himself to make another mistake.

_______

  
  


Doc yawned and flicked his tongue, smelling the mid morning rain. He opened his eye. After quickly scanning the room for threats he settled on Scar, curled up just slightly off of the nest that had been made for him. He wasn’t very good at taking care of himself Doc thought. 

Doc tapped on the side of his broken eye, the quiet  **_tink tink_ ** echoing through his skull. Scar had seemed really upset about what he’d had done last night, attacking the metal phantom. He looked down at the phantom’s carcass that Scar had insisted on bringing in with them, nudging it with his foot.

He picked it up and turned it around, looking at it from every angle he could, it reminded him of his warm device thing, which it occurred to him, he hadn’t seen since last night. He searched around the room for his communicator, eventually finding it under a pile of straw. As his fingers curled around it he realised the screen was blank and the device was cold. He ran the tips of his fingers along each edge of the communicator, looking for the single button he knew should activate it.

**_Click_ **

He stared at the screen expectedly. Nothing changed.

He pressed the button again, and again. Still nothing changed. He felt sadness sink through his body, starting at the top of his head and traveling through his veins, making its way to every corner of his being.

Had Scar done this? Was he not meant to be using it the way? Was this punishment for what had happened last night? 

A spark of anger burst in his chest for a split second and he hurled the communicator. It made a long sharp  **_scrrrrk_ ** sound as it scraped along the stone part of the floor.

Doc froze as Scar groaned and shuffled slightly.

Part of him wanted Scar to wake up so they would be able to go get food. He could of course, get food on his own but then he feared the landscaper wouldn’t eat it once again. On the other hand he was dreading there being more conversation about the night before.

Doc shuffled over the smoldering fire that was barely clinging to life from the night before, letting the little warmth soak into his skin and once again picked up the phantom.

He noted that there were screws holding it together, finally something he understood. He tilted his head and unscrewed them, sending a small wave of satisfaction through him as he watched the two sections separate. He gently put the larger piece back on the floor and focused on the smaller part.

“What’re you doing” Came a tired voice from the other side of the room. Scar sat up and shook the straw from his hands before rubbing his eyes and focusing on Doc who tilted his head and held up the piece section he was currently dismantling.

“What is... Wait, is that the drone?!” 

Scar took a better look around at the metal strewn all over the floor, his face evolving from shock to a mix of anger and despair. “Why did you do that! We-That was our way home!” 

Doc shrunk back and lifted his quills in response to Scar’s raised voice. The landscaper pulled tightly on his hair.

“Why can you dismantle a whole damn drone but not speak! Is this all some kind of joke?! Are you pretending to be like this?! Do you want us to never get home?!” Scar was standing up now and slightly hunched over Doc who pushed himself against the wall

**_HISSS_ **

“DON’T HISS AT ME!” The landscaper snapped and the hiss turned into a strange snarl as the creeper tried to hold the sound in his throat. 

Scar turned and held his head, making frustrated noises.

Apparently Doc had done something really bad now. He looked from the door to the landscaper. He should leave.

So Doc took the opportunity to scurry out of the house and into the late afternoon.

Doc sat on the riverbank watching the moon rise, he should be looking for a shelter but he couldn’t bring himself to get up.

**_Crunch_ **

There was a noise far behind him which Doc almost instantly honed in on, something was creeping around his… And Scar’s… Territory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure how happy I am with this chapter but staring at it for days wasn't helping. So here you go!


	9. Chapter 9

“So we need to look for a downed drone?” Zedaph asked as the three of them slogged through the wet forest floor. At least it had stopped raining.

“Yeah yeah. Wonder what would attack a drone…” Tango hummed, erratically jumping from each of the dryer parts of the ground, dodging the thick piles of moist leaves.

“Well, if it was in the air… It would have to be a skeleton or a phantom. Right? Or a stray, but I would be surprised one spawned around here… Not impossible” Impulse mused, rubbing the stubble on his chin.

“What if a creeper blew up a zombie, it went flying and landed on the drone!” Zedaph enthused, acting the scene out with his hands with added sound effects.

“That uh… Certainly could be the case” Impulse humoured with his eyebrow’s furrowed.

“Don’t be ridiculous Zed, a zombie’s arms would shlrop right off! It would have to be like a...” Tango waved his arms around, searching for the right words. “A super duper muscle man macho zombo”

“Maybe he was a wrestler in his past life?” Zedaph suggested.

The netherkin hit his palm with his fist. “He must have been!” 

“So our current hypothesis is that the drone was taken down by a flying jacked zombie?”

“Yes.” Said both Tango and Zed simultaneously.

As Impulse and Tango continued talking, Zedaph turned his attention to the leaf that he’d been holding onto for over a day now, squinting to get a proper look in what was left of the evening sun. It was beginning to wilt.

He let out a small huff; he would have to copy down the details of this soon before it deteriorated completely. Or maybe he could dry it... But it’d been raining for ages and the air was all moist. Maybe Tango would be warm enough to dry the leaf, not that his body temperature was really all that much higher than a human’s. But it was worth a shot!

“Tango, can you hold my leaf?” Zedaph said, continuing to stare at the foliage in his hands. “Tango?” He looked up at his friend only to find him nowhere in sight. 

“Uh… TANGO? IMPULSE?” A full minute of no response. 

This wasn’t good.

Zedaph spun around, trying to get a glimpse of anything aside from the surrounding taiga but with the sun now firmly beneath the horizon he couldn’t see more than a few blocks away. He balled his fist tightly, closed his eyes, and tried desperately to listen for any sign of his friends. A crunch of leaves, a snap of a branch, anything. However there was none - only the sound of gently rustling leaves in the wind and the bubbling of running water. 

Running water? A river? Perhaps that’s where he should head, and while he couldn’t really expect his friends to go towards a river simply because it existed, a river would mean a clearing of the trees, allowing him to see further. So possibly easier to find his friends? Who knows, they might have even had the same idea for searching for Scar and Doc!

With a plan now formulated Zedaph puffed out his chest and marched towards the sound of flowing water. 

**_CRACK_ **

His faux confidence rapidly dissipated as the snapping of a twig echoed through the forest, amplified by the tenseness of the situation, much like dropping a spoon in the kitchen at 3am. He pressed his eyes closed for a second and took a deep breath before looking down at the stick he’d stepped on. “Stupid stick thing” He muttered as he kicked it aside.

Right. The river, it would be brighter by there anyway. He lifted his head towards the water sounds.

There was a tall figure standing by a distant tree. Zedaph rubbed his eyes and the figure was gone. “Uh.. Tango?”

When there was no response he shook his head and laughed quietly “just my imagination, just my imagination.” He took a few steps forward before quickly stopping. He was sure he could hear footsteps aside from his own but they stopped as soon as he did, “uh h-hah Zed it’s fine, get a grip”

As he continued on his journey he kept seeing figures looming in the dark, getting ever and ever closer. “It’s my imagination! I. Am. Imagining this!” he repeated, letting out a small strained laugh.

A quiet hiss sounded behind him and Zedaph rapidly swiveled on his heel, the momentum of the turn causing him to lose his balance and fall on his rear.

The silhouette of a tall humanoid creature stood over him, a single pure white glowing eye stared down at him. 

He scooted backwards away from the creature, quickly cupping his trembling hand over his mouth as he felt terrified laughter climb up his throat. The creature hissed at the sudden movement of Zedaph’s arm and almost the entire silhouette flashed a brilliant white. 

He let out a shriek of a laugh which soon dissolved into slightly crazed giggles as he scrambled backwards, blinded briefly by the flash.

His back hit a tree. 

The creature tilted its head at him and stalked closer, one of its arms swung limply at its side, the other reached for his face. He pressed his body against the tree, trying to get as far away from the creature as possible. As the monster’s hand got closer and closer to his face he scrunched his eyes closed, small terrified chuckles continuing to escape him in between ragged breaths.

He felt a cold hand on his face, its strange grooves gripping and grabbing at the skin of his cheek. He wasn’t dead. He cracked a single eye open, the creature was about 2 inches away from his face.

It licked him.

It was tasting him. Oh god it was going to eat him. “P-please I’m not tasty I taste like dirt and worms!”

The creature let go of his face, turned, and walked back into the forest.

Zedaph blinked, shocked by the creature’s sudden change of heart.

“...Do I really taste like dirt and worms?”

________

  
  


“Doc- DOC WAIT!”

Scar stared at the open door gently swinging in the wind. He groaned, slumped back into Doc’s nest, and ran his hand through his hair. Doc would come back right? He’d wandered around freely before, as evidenced by the melting fish that was still sitting on the crafting bench, sosurely he knew how to navigate around the area. Not to mention he seemed defensive enough to defend himself from mobs, probably…

Would he want to come back though? That’s what Scar was more worried about.

The landscaper looked over at the dismantled drone. Trying to understand why Doc would do such a thing. There seemed to be some kind of method of organisation; there were several distinct piles filled with screws and metal pieces. The logic behind the categories however escaped the landscaper, whether that was a testament to the creepers mental state or his own lack of organisational skills he wasn’t sure.

During his study of the piles he noted that, off to the side a few blocks away from the drone pieces, Doc’s communicator was face down on the floor.

He sighed and crawled over to the communicator, not bothering to stand. He crossed his legs as he picked the device up. It was cold, a big change from its overheating state the night before. 

He turned the device in his hand and clicked the power button. Unsurprisingly, after its meltdown, it didn’t turn on. He was sure Doc wouldn’t have been too pleased with the broken communicator although he’d still yet to figure out why the creeper was so attached to it. Come to think of it, this was the first time the creeper had willingly not been holding it, aside from his handing it to Scar the night before which was reluctant to say the least.

He clicked the power button once more, knowing it wouldn’t change anything but staring into the dark screen regardless. The landscaper noted it was covered in long scratches which he was certain weren’t there the night before. He supposed that proved that Doc certainly wasn’t happy about its broken state.

Scar put the communicator aside and stared at the ceiling. He knew he really should go searching for Doc, but at the same time, he had no equipment and even when he was fully geared he was terrible at the art of self preservation. He’d be no help whatsoever if he died.

Around and around his thoughts swirled, unable to settle on a correct course of action, only leading him to conclude that he’d really messed up. He sighed and put his head in his hands.

The door swung open, startling Scar who frantically scrambled for something to protect him from the zombie that surely just broke his door. His hand landed on the fish carcass and without putting a second thought into he threw it at the intruder with all his might.

Which wasn’t much.

The fish landed with a wet **_slap_ **three blocks to the left of the doorway which, now the landscaper actually looked at it, framed Doc.

He let out a shaky sigh of relief before tensing right back to where he was as he realised what he’d just done. “Doc I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to! I thought you were a zombie! I just got startled!” 

The creeper spared only a glance at the fish before trudging over to the fireplace to grab his coat, pulling it on clumsily with his only functioning arm. His movements seemed strangely sluggish.

“Uh- Doc I’m also really sorry about how I treated you okay” Scar tried to continue his apology “I’m stressed out and I shouldn’t have taken that out on... you…” He trailed off as the creeper continued to ignore him, watching as he picked up the landscapers jacket and wrapped it around his neck. “Wait, what’re you doing with my clothes…” He still got no response as Doc began searching the room for something. Scar ran his hand through his hand and sighed 

“Doc... Please at least acknowledge I’m talking to you… I’m sure you can understand me at least a little right!”

The creeper made eye contact with Scar for the first time that night and despite asking for it he couldn’t keep himself from shying away from Doc’s unwavering gaze, instead intently studying the fibres in his pants. “I’m sorry for freaking out at you.”

A green hand holding a communicator blocked the landscapers line of vision, causing him to look back at the creeper.

Scar realised just how tired Doc looked as the creeper stared back and forth between the landscaper and the communicator before eventually pointing to the power button.

“Uh… It broke. Last night when I was looking through it.”

Doc crinkled his nose and pointed to Scar questioningly.

“Uh- I’m not sure what you mean but I didn’t mean to break it, it overheated.”

The creeper let out a small annoyed hiss, causing the landscaper to jump a little, which only seemed to annoy Doc even more.

He tossed the communicator to the side and grabbed Scar’s wrist, pulling him to his feet, although with less strength than the landscaper expected. “Wait! Where are we going!?”

The creeper only grunted, pulling him towards the door and into the darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr if anyone is interested?  
> Minecraft: https://little-missie-guardian.tumblr.com/  
> Main: https://missiefishu.tumblr.com/  
> Art: https://missiefishart.tumblr.com/


	10. Chapter 10

Scar shivered as he was dragged along by Doc. The night air was biting and the creeper’s freezing hand wasn’t helping. 

Dragged might be an over exaggeration as Scar could easily keep up with the creeper, who seemed to be steadily slowing down, his movements becoming more and more uncoordinated.

Scar chewed on his lip wondering how to best talk to Doc, or if it was even a good idea. He was probably still angry at the landscaper after all. “Doc, are you okay? What’s wrong?” he blurted out, before quickly running his hand through his hair.

The creeper stopped walking and scrunched up his face, clearly frustrated. Ah, evidently he was still upset. After a minute or so he pulled the landscaper closer, almost into a half hug, catching the landscaper of guard. Scar sharply inhaled, shocked from both the movement and the temperature change

“D-Doc, you’re very cold!” Scar exclaimed through chattering teeth, the creeper looked down at him intently and nodded.

“So d-do you mind letting-Oohh” It suddenly clicked. Eco? Echo? Something-therm, cold blooded, Doc was cold blooded. Scar wasn’t entirely sure what that entailed but clearly he got in a bad way if he got too cold. “Doc, we should go back home. I can light the fire so you can nice and warm!” 

The creeper shook his head and began walking again, holding Scar tight to his body, leeching the landscapers warmth.

Doc really was determined to take Scar… Somewhere… Would it be pessimistic of him to fear it might be something like another fish?

Doc was practically carrying Scar by the time they made it to the creepers destination. 

“You brought me out here… In the middle of the night… to look at a tree?” Scar eyed said tree, willing himself to give Doc the benefit of the doubt.

Doc’s eyebrow furrowed and he gently put the landscaper down before inspecting every inch of the tree, tongue flicking rapidly.

“Was there something here?” The landscaper questioned as he wrapped his arms around himself in an effort to warm back up. The creeper nodded, distractedly looking around the environment.

**_FA-TWANG FA-TWANG_ **

Scar let out a pained yell as an arrow lodged itself into his shoulder blade quickly followed by a second burrowing itself into his right calf. He stumbled forward and his leg crumpled beneath him, sending him tumbling into the tree headfirst, hitting it with dull  **_thud_ ** and a quiet squeak.

A horrid hiss filled the night and a blur of green ran through Scar’s swimming vision as he turned, trying to spot his attackers.

The landscaper’s vision began to clear, revealing Doc with jaws firmly around a skeleton’s topmost rib, a second mob peering out from behind a tree a few blocks away. The creeper reached for the skeletons humerus and flashed a brilliant white, dazzling both the skeletons and Scar. Before the landscaper regained his sight he heard the horrible sound of cracking bones and tearing cartilage.

Scar lifted his arm to rub his eyes, hoping to clear his vision only to let out a pained yelp from the movement of his shoulder. Doc looked over at him, a rib bone hanging from between his teeth and a boney arm in his hand.

The second skeleton chose this time to strike. The sound of shattering glass reverberated through the forest, an arrow stuck at an angle through Doc’s inorganic eye.

Scar’s vision was swimming again as Doc leapt at the second skeleton, the sound of the fighting being overtaken by a loud ringing sound. He pressed his hand into the ground, trying to steady himself as the world spun around him. It landed in something warm and sticky. The landscaper tried to look down at the substance but the movement was too much. His vision receded and something hit his head, or his head hit something. 

The warm sticky substance was pooling around his cheek.

________

  
  


“Exactly HOW do you forget your communicator exists?!” Tango exclaimed, swinging his arms out several times in emphasis.

“You panic!! Because you’re being chased by a monster!” Zedaph responded defensively while placing a block at his feet. Tango, Impulse and Zedaph stood on the riverbank, each working to quickly put together a shelter.

Impulse laid a line of blocks down, before wiping his brow “So this.. ‘Monster’, what was it really?” 

“I dunno man! It was tall,” Zedaph stood on his tippy toes and held his hand high above his head, “had a glowing eye, and it licked me!” He pointed to his cheek as if the lick should have caused a visible mark.

Impulse tilted his head curiously, not looking up from his work. “Glowing eyes?” 

“Eye,” Zedaph corrected

“Did it do anything else?”   
“Uhm… it hissed… and flashed at me”

Tango snickered 

Zedaph rolled his eyes. “I mean it lit up! Not that!”

Tango interrupted his own laughter with a cough. “Well I meeeean, hissing and flashing seems like a creeper. Tall and a glowing eye? Sounds a looot like a certain hermi.t”

“It wasn’t glowing red, it was white. And it was on the other side of its face!” Zedaph retorted, pointing to his right eye to emphasize.

Tango sat on the half built wall he was working on and rested his chin on his fist, his tail flicking like an agitated cat. “Y’know, that might make it more convincing that it is Doc.”

“Uh.. How?”

Tango closed his eyes and pulled out his communicator, holding it at an angle pointing towards his face. He sat like that for a few seconds while Zedaph and Impulse glanced between him and each other, confused. He flicked the device on and opened his eyes, his pupils glowing a brilliant red before they contracted in the light.

“Eye shine,” He said, rubbing his eyes and blinking.

“Man- You could have just said that instead of being all dramatic.” Impulse rolled his eyes, but he had a wide smile on his face.

“Well that doesn’t change anything. As I said before, the glowy was white not red.” Zedaph said, crossing his arms stubbornly, leaving Impulse as the only one building.

“Eyeshine doesn’t HAVE to be red, mine is just red, cause reflection of light and blah blah blah you get it. Also because I’m awesome.”

“Well how do we even know Doc has it?!”

“Most things have it! Humans are the weird ones!”

The conversation lulled as Zedaph intensely stared at his feet and Impulse took the opportunity to shoo Tango off of the wall, swiftly finishing it off.

Zedaph shook his head “No... it wasn’t Doc. It was hissing at me!”

“So? Creatures make noises like that all the time when they’re scared or confused.” Tango had switched to sitting on a pile of shulker boxes.   
“Oh, like the time you growled at a pig.” Zedaph snarked

Tango threw his arms in the air dramatically. “I was half asleep and it sounded like- I dunno- Danger! Also you make scared noises like that all the time!”

“Oh yeah! Like what!?” A resounding  **_CLAP_ ** sounded from behind Zedaph causing him to leap out of his skin. “AHH?”

“Like that.” Impulse smirked

Zedaph slid down the wall with a hand on his heart. After a bit he sighed and shook his head, looking out into the forest.

“Why do you have to sit on everything JUST as I need it?” Impulse looked disapprovingly at the grinning netherkin perched on top of the pile of shulkers.

Before Tango could reply Zedaph let out a shriek and scurried into the now completed shelter, slamming the door behind him.

“What the what?” The netherkin followed his scared friend’s line of sight into the trees “Oh shiiii..ft...”

“What? What is it?” Impulse’s head flicked between his friends.

Zedaph put his hand through the opening at the top of the door and pointed at a figure between the trees. “The monster!” 

“It IS Doc!” Tango yelled as he clambered off his perch and ran to the creature, the ambiguity of which washed away as he stepped into the light. He looked rough. Large bags under his eye, blood covering his coat, and an arrow poking out of his inorganic eye which had been shattered. Not as rough as Scar though, who was limply hanging over the creepers shoulder, bloodied with several arrows poking out his body.

“Scar?!” The netherkin’s voice cracked as he ran over.

As Tango approached Doc took a step back, letting out a loud hiss, baring his teeth, and raising his quills. The netherkin stumbled back in surprise, letting out a small growl and baring his teeth briefly before shaking his head. “Don’t startle me-” He swallowed and took in the creeper’s sorry state. “Hm okay, this uh.. worse than I thooought… What are we dealing with here Doccy?”

The creeper stopped hissing and flicked his tongue a few times; he however kept his quills raised. Tango glanced back at the shelter. Zedaph had his face pressed against the holes in the door and Impulse was watching the scene with his hand on the hilt of his sword. 

“Psst, Impulse,” Tango spoke in a low tone. Impulse’s expression perked up a little in attention. “D.E.R.P protocol.”

Impulse made a silent ‘o’ shape with his mouth before removing his hand from the hilt of his sword and opening one of the shulker boxes, trusting his friend to keep him safe.

Meanwhile, Tango brought his tail tight to his body, trying to keep himself looking small and nonthreatening. It worked well considering the netherkin was already at least a head and a half shorter than Doc. 

With effort he calmed his usually energetic tone “Heeyyy buddy, you and Scar look pretty beat up there huh? Just c’mover here and we can get the both of you patched up.” Tango began backing away slowly towards their camp.

Doc slowly lowered his quills, looking moreso perplexed than calmed by the netherkin’s actions, but he followed him nonetheless.

Impulse came up behind Tango and they smoothly traded places. The netherkin quietly opened the shelter door as Impulse held out a piece of cooked beef. The creeper’s eye widened and intently focused on the food, picking up speed as he moved towards Impulse.

“Oh jeez he’s coming,” Impulse called as he rapidly backed towards the door.

**_Click_ **

Tango closed the door behind them. They were in. Doc looked back at the door, furrowing his eyebrow.

“Okay… Maybe it was Doc.” Zedaph said quietly from the corner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr if anyone is interested?  
> Minecraft: https://little-missie-guardian.tumblr.com/  
> Main: https://missiefishu.tumblr.com/  
> Art: https://missiefishart.tumblr.com/


End file.
